Murder City Saints
by redsandman99
Summary: Vigilantes, heroes, modern day folk legends--the Murder City Saints were called a lot of things. But as they fight to keep control of their city, they find themselves the target of both the criminals and the police. Feat. Hardys, Mark, James, Glenn, etc.
1. The Saints Come Marching In

"Late. They're gonna say I'm late again. Sons of bitches. It's so not fair. They always put these meetings together when I'm asleep and then they get mad when I don't show up on time. Well fuck them then. They'll just have to wait," Jeff muttered to himself. Despite the anger in his voice though, he really wished someone would have come back to the house and picked him up. Sure the VIP Lounge was only three blocks from their house, but he didn't have a driver's license and it was too cold for him to happily walk. Even with his jacket on it was fucking freezing. "Damn rain," he muttered, crossing the street and barely avoiding getting hit by a car. The rain was the problem. If that would just go away then everything would be just fine.

A bunch of creeps hanging out in front of an old warehouse whistled at him as he walked by them. For a minute he thought about going over there and flirting with them, but he decided they were all too ugly for him. Stuffing his hands into his jacket pockets, he walked a little bit faster. He was armed with two guns and a few knives, but that still didn't mean he felt completely safe. The streets were dangerous after the sun went down (although they weren't as bad as they used to be) and even though he was used to roaming around alone, it didn't stop him from feeling nervous about doing it. Of course, if the others knew why he felt nervous about it, they were never going to let him go anywhere ever again without constant supervision. And even though that would probably be safer, he liked his freedom way too much to even want to consider it.

Finally reaching the VIP Lounge, he all but ran inside to escape the cold. Montel Vontavious Porter, the owner of the club, was sitting at the bar, looking over some papers with his girl Sherri. "Hey Jeff, what's happenin?" Montel asked.

"I'm gonna kill my friends," Jeff replied. He took his purple hair out of the ponytail it was in and shook it around a little bit to get the drops of water out of it. "Where are they?"

"In the back," Montel replied, pointing to the back room that was supposed to be for employees only. "Can I just ask, why do you people always insist on having these meetings here? I mean, I like you guys a whole bunch, but the house you all live in is perfect for meetings."

"There are too many distractions there," Jeff said. "The TV, the video games, food, the sex room--Mark can never get us to focus when we're there."

"Oh, okay. Well you better get back there then. They've been back there for awhile now."

Jeff nodded and went to the back room. The others looked up at him and he could sense that he was about to be scolded. "This was your fault," he said quickly. "Nobody stuck around to drag my ass out of bed and you should all be looking at each other like that."

"We _tried_ to do that," Matt said. He was leaning back in his chair, his feet propped up on the table. "You wouldn't get up so we just left you there."

"And least we called at the last minute," James said with a grin.

Jeff rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I so hate you guys right now. It was cold out there." He took off his jacket and hung it up on the coat rack, revealing his outfit of a tiny fishnet top and low riding, skin tight black jeans.

Mark stared at him for a long moment before shaking his head. "Seriously Jeff? You complain about freezing your ass off yet you walk around in that?"

Jeff looked down at his outfit. "What? I have to look good, don't I?"

Glenn smirked. "You are such a slut."

"Yeah, but I'm your guys's slut." Jeff looked over at Connor, who was giggling like crazy. "What did you do?" Connor had to have done something. He always did that after he had done something.

Connor giggled some more before answering. "I molested Matt in his sleep."

"What?" Jeff looked at Matt for confirmation.

Matt sighed. "He got into bed with me and started biting me."

"Oh. What did you do about it?"

"I just about broke the bed fucking the shit out of him."

Jeff giggled. Everyone who got on Matt's bed got on at their own risk. "Again? Good grief Matt. If you break him Cooper and James are going to string you up on the tallest tree."

Connor rolled his eyes. "I won't break. I can take a fucking a lot better than you can."

"Bitch please, nobody can take a fucking better than me. I am the master of getting fucked."

"Nuh uh. I'm the master."

"I swear Connor, if you do not shut up and agree that I'm--"

"Can we please get to the business at hand here?" Cooper snapped irritably. He was standing next to a marker board that had been set up and it had pictures of four different dudes on it. "I know this is hard to believe, but we actually have work to do tonight."

Jeff frowned. Cooper was grouchy again. He had been that way for a couple of weeks now, ever since he had come home after a nasty bar fight. They had questioned him again and again about the fight, but he just got all pissed off about it and told them to drop the subject. _Maybe he lost the fight and it's still bothering him,_ Jeff thought to himself. _He does hate to lose. He's a worse sore loser than Matty is._

Glenn sighed and pulled Jeff down on to his lap. "Okay Cooper," he said, playfully tugging on Jeff's nipples. "We're all ears."

Cooper glared at Jeff (who was squirming around on Glenn's lap because the older man wasn't letting go of the hardened and cold nubs) before pointing to the pictures on the board. "These are the targets for tonight. They are--"

"The newest cast additions for _Queer Eye for the Straight Eye_?" James asked.

"Chippendale dancers?" Mark guessed.

Cooper looked like he was starting to get pissed. "If you fuckers don't fucking get serious, I'm fucking leaving," he growled. "Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you tonight?"

"Nothing is wrong with us," James said defensively. "You're the one with the problem here."

Cooper growled and pointed at the pictures again. "These four assholes are cops, okay? Dirty fucking cops that beat on the few street kids that are innocent, they've framed several people for different drug and murder charges and there are more than a few hookers that didn't live to see the end of the night because they got into the car with one of these fucktards." He began pointing to the pictures one by one. "Drew McIntyre. This Scottish fuck that has it out for JTG and Shad's pal Ron Killings. Ron's avoided him so far but he can't hide out for much longer. I told him to go ahead and go to JTG and Shad's party tonight. He'll be the bait and then when McIntyre goes for him--"

"We kill the fuck out of him," Matt said gleefully. He looked at Mark. "I say you and I go for it."

Mark glared at him. "You're just trying to get me to go to a party."

"Well you do need to get out more," Jeff pointed out. Mark was not big on parties because he was a grouchy pants. "And if you don't go to this party, I'm gonna bug ya for the rest of the night."

Mark sighed and rolled his eyes. "Whatever." Judging from the way he said that, that meant he was going to go to the party with Matt.

Cooper pointed to the second picture. "This is Paul Burchill. Creepy dude from England, moved to here from there about two years ago. Now unbeknownst to the inept portion of the police department, Burchill was known as the Ripper back over in England. Anyone want to guess why?"

"He fancies himself as the modern day Jack the Ripper yet he's nothing more than incest loving freak?" James guessed.

Everyone but Cooper frowned at him. "What?" they all said at the same time.

James smirked. "I've seen this guy before. Him and his sister Katie Lea were hassling Evan the other night. I stepped in, was gonna kill them but they drove off before that could happen. I talked to Evan about it afterwards and he said he saw the two of them making out. before they started bothering him."

"First of all Dad, you are the last person who should be calling anyone involved in incest a freak," Cooper pointed out. "Second of all, do you still want to kill the dude?"

"Oh fuck yeah," James said eagerly. "Do you even need to ask?"

Jeff grinned. James was probably the most blood thirsty one of the entire group. He always used to think James might slip up and kill someone who was innocent, but Lawson seemed satisfied with just horribly murdering bad guys.

"Imma go with you Daddy," Connor said, nodding his head so fast that he looked like an out of control bobble head. "Is that okay?"

James ruffled Connor's hair affectionately. "Yeah, it's okay."

So that just left the final two dudes on the board. "This ugly fuck right here is named Chris Masters," Cooper said. "His favorite pass time is killing boy whores."

"Are we sure he's killed the boy whores?" Glenn asked. "He looks too dumb to even know how to tie his own shoes."

"I'm sure he's killed them," Cooper confirmed. "Our sources don't lie." He looked at Jeff and just waited.

Jeff sighed, knowing exactly what Cooper was getting at. "You want me to go out on the street until he tries to pick me up," he said with a roll of his eyes.

Cooper smirked. "It's what you get for dressing like a total slut."

"Oh go fuck yourself Cooper."

Glenn kissed Jeff on the back of the neck. "It's okay Jeffey. I'll go with you and watch your back."

Matt raised his eyebrows. "You be careful with him Glenn," he said. "His ass is supposed to be mine later."

"No way. He's mine tonight," James objected.

Mark snorted. "Please, you're going to be too busy being fucked by me to even begin to fuck Jeff."

Cooper through up his hands and stormed towards the door. "The last dude is mine," he growled on the way back. "I'm going after him alone."

They all stared at the door as it was slammed shut. "Okay, he seriously needs some Midol or something," James said. He shook his head. "His mood swings are seriously starting to bug me."

"Me too," Mark agreed. He patted James on the shoulder. "Good luck at cheering him up. You're gonna need it."

Connor walked over to the marker board and pointed to the last dude that Cooper was supposed to be going after. "Officer Ziggles!"

"What?" Matt said in confusion.

"It's Officer Ziggles!" Connor repeated. He clapped his hands happily. "Ziggles! Ziggles! Ziggles!"

Jeff wasn't even going to say anything. Some people called him childish, but Connor took that cake easily. Not only was he basically a child stuck inside an adult body, but he was crazy as fuck on top of it. "Shall we?" he said, getting up and grinning seductively.

Glenn smirked and got up too. "We shall." He kissed Jeff (partly just to annoy the others) before smacking the smaller man's ass and leading him out of the room. "Just don't try to distract me like you always do. Mark just about killed us that one time when we let that one dude get away from us."

Jeff giggled. The last time he and Glenn were out on the hunt, he had gotten horny and made Glenn fuck him in an alley. The guy they had been hunting saw them and got away, but it wasn't as big of deal as Mark had made it out to be. They killed the guy less than four hours later, so in their eyes, there were no long lasting consequences of that incident. "Okay Glenn, I'll behave while we hunt."

But after they got done hunting...well, that was going to be a different story completely.


	2. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

Matt grinned as Mark parked the motorcycle a couple of blocks away from where the party was supposed to be. Neither of them wanted to park that far away, but there was literally no place closer to park at. "This is good you know," he said as they began walking towards the house. "You coming out to a party I mean. Sometimes I think you're too much of a hermit."

"I am not a hermit," Mark said irritably. "Me not liking crowds does not make me a hermit. Don't let James put those kinds of ideas in your head."

Matt chuckled and shoved his hands in his pockets. "James doesn't have to put those kinds of ideas in my head. Your antisocial tendencies are kind of notorious."

Mark muttered under his breat and rolled his eyes. Matt just dropped the subject after that. Mark had never been big on socializing with large groups of people, and that wasn't going to change now. But despite that, Matt was glad that Mark was the one with him. Even though Mark could be a grouch, he was good company. Besides, it felt nice to be with the closest thing that Matt (and Jeff) had to a father. Their real dad (along with their mother) had been killed when they were all coming home from the movies. Matt had been tweleve and Jeff had been nine. Two thugs had tried to mug their parents, and things had gotten violently out of control from there. Matt had gotten himself and Jeff away from the scene, but not before they had watched their parents get shot right before their eyes. The violent attack had caused Jeff to go mute for about a year and for both of them to be bounced around from foster home to foster home for about six years. Finally, when Matt turned eighteen, he went out on his own and tried to get legal custody of Jeff. When the courts wouldn't give it to him, he took his baby brother and went on the run. That hadn't been the smartest idea in the world because they had ended up living on the streets for two years, moving from city to city with no place to go. It wasn't until James and Mark found them wondering the streets one day and took them in that they finally had a home again.

By that time, Mark and James had started the Murder City Saints. The city's entire justice system was either corrupt or incompetent. Criminals were running the streets and nobody was really safe. Mark and James had watched the chaos and finally got tired of nobody doing anything about it. They, along with Glenn, Cooper and Connor decided they were going to play judge, jury and executioner, and attacked the corrupt system without hesitation. Their actions had the most success out of any action taken in the past twenty years, and a lot of people (especially the ones who lived in the more dangerous neighborhoods), regarded them as heroes. The cops and the people who were either uninformed of how bad things truly were (which were usually the ones who lived in the nice part of the city) thought they were vigilantes. Matt didn't really care what other people thought about them. To him, the Saints were the family he and Jeff desperately needed. For the past three years, he and Jeff had been happier than they had been since their parents had died. They had channled all the anger and rage they felt about their parents being taken away from them into their work, and it helped them out in the long run.

"Oh Lord," Mark muttered as they walked up the steps of the house. Judging from how loud the music was and the fact that some of the people had to come outside just to be able to move around comfortably, this was going to be a little harder than normal. "How the hell are we going to find McIntyre in this sea of people?"

Matt shrugged. "Like we usually do. We'll use our eyes."

Mark grunted as he led them into the house. "Fucking smartass. That's not what I meant and you know it."

Matt knew that, but that hadn't stopped him from saying it. He knew it wasn't nice, but sometimes saying stuff that he knew would irritate Mark was actually kind of fun. He blamed James one hundred percent for that guilty pleasure.

The first people they saw that they knew were the Bella twins Nikki and Brie. Luckily they were too busy with Carlito and Primo Colon to notice them. It wasn't that Matt didn't like them, but they tended to ignore the fact that he was into men and they always tried to come on to him. Making sure to quickly look away from them, he grabbed on to Mark's arm and followed the larger man further into the crowded living room. He could see JTG and Shad dancing with Tiffany and Kelly Kelly. Tiffany ran a local shelter for runaway teenagers and battered women and...well Matt didn't know what the hell Kelly actually did. She just kind of showed up to these things and smiled a lot.

"Matt! Mark! Stop for a damn second! I am talking to you!"

Matt turned around just in time for Eve to jump into his arms. Now if he actually had to be with a woman, Eve Torres would be the one he would choose. She was his best friend and the one he went to when the other members of the Saints were drivng him absolutely insane. "Hey there," he said happily, spinning her around a little bit. "I haven't seen you since....well three hours ago actually."

Eve laughed. "Yeah, but three hours can be a lifetime." She let go of Matt and took a step towards Mark.

"I don't hug," Mark said quickly.

"Well you do now," Eve replied. She gave Mark a great big hug before he could stop her.

"Oh God damn it to hell woman! Let me go this instant!"

Matt chuckled at Mark's discomfort as he looked around. Shannon Moore, Evan Bourne and Maria Kanellis were watching Shane "Hurricane" Helms and Oscar "Rey Mysterio" Gutierez have a drinking contest. Shannon, Evan and Maria were all high school kids, and Matt knew to an outsider, they would think that the kids had no business at this party. But unfortunately, like most of the kids in this part of town, they were probably safer here than they would have been at home with their so called "parents". As for Shane and Oscar, they actually ran a comic book store about a couple of miles from the house. Shane was big on superheroes; like REALLY fucking big on superheroes. The Hurricane nickname actually came from him dressing up as a superhero for days at a time (he was a geek but at least he was proud of it. That had to be respected). Oscar on the other hand, was a huge lucha libre wrestling fan. In fact, he went down to Mexico and wrestled matches when he could, and Rey Mysterio was his ring name.

Over more towards the kitchen, Ron was having a conversation with Kofi Kingston and Matt Striker. Matt looked harder, trying to see if this McIntyre guy had the balls to actually be in the house. This neighborhood was enormously paranoid about cops, and even if they were in street clothes, there were people here that could spot them a mile off (himself and Mark included--and that wasn' just because they knew what Drew actually looked like).

Mark leaned over towards him. "Casually look behind us and up towards the staircase," he ordered quietly. "Do it now."

Matt did what he was told, seeing why as soon as he did. Drew was there alright. He was standing up by the railing upstairs, staring down at Ron, who seemed oblivious that he was being watched. "Mother fucker has a set of balls on him," Matt muttered as he looked at Eve and Mark. "I say we cut them off and feed it to him."

Mark rolled his eyes. "Okay, you have definitely been spending too much times with James."

Eve pouted her lips. "Oh, so this isn't a social call, is it?"

"Nope," Matt confirmed. He gave her an apologetic look. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get your hopes up."

She shook her head. "It's okay. I understand." She suddenly glared at both of them. "You guys aren't planning on leaving right after you're done though, right?"

"No," Matt said quickly. "We wouldn't dream of it."

Mark just grunted unhappily.

"Good," Eve said. She kissed them each on the cheek. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Could ya whisper to Ron to go out back and start wandering off alone?" Matt asked. "If we can get McIntyre to follow him, then we can do this at a place that doesn't have hundreds of witnesses."

"Sure thing."

Mark shook his head as Eve made her way over to Ron. "You know, if I wasn't sure she was a big old lesbian, I would think she had a crush on you."

Matt raised his eyebrows. Eve did swing that way, but he hadn't told the others about it. "How did you--"

"It's just something I can tell," Mark told him. "And it helped that I came over one time to talk to Shad and I saw her through her bedroom window going down on a chick."

"Oh, so you're a peeping Tom now?"

"No! She left the damn curtains open! I didn't want to see it but she made it impossible to look away!"

Matt smirked. "Mark likes looking at lesbians..."

"Matt, I swear to God, shut your fucking mouth!" Mark snarled. "Or I am going to rip out that annoying tongue of yours!"

"If you rip my tongue out, I won't be able to do that thing you like when I'm giving you a blowjob," Matt said smugly.

As Mark turned an interesting shade of red, they watched Eve whisper into Ron's ear. If Ron suddenly became worried, he didn't show it. Instead he just wrapped up his conversation with Kofi and then went out the back door that was in the kitchen. Matt and Mark quickly ducked more into the crowd and watched as Drew casually walked down the stairs, made his way through the living room and kitchen, and went the same way that Killings had gone.

"What the hell do you think this fucker is going through all this trouble for?" Matt asked as they quickly went the same route. "Coming to a party like this is begging for trouble."

Mark shook his head. "I got a good glimpse into this fucker's eyes. This guy is a little arrogant shit head who wants trouble. He thinks his gun and his shiny badge make him invincible. It's the same fucking type we've seen a hundred times before."

Matt had seen the type before, but he still didn't get it. After three years of doing this, he would have thought the cops would have learned this lesson by now: don't fucking do this dirty shit or you are going to get killed. Yet that didn't appear to be the case. _Oh well, it's his funeral._

When they got outside, they walked into the alley and started going up it. The sound of a trash can being knocked over caught their attention. Mark took a giant bike chain out of his pocket and took the lead. Matt followed him in between two abandoned houses and found Drew and Ron fighting all across the ground. Ron was on top at first, but Drew soon turned the tables and got Ron pinned down under him. Mark made his move at that moment and wrapped the chain around McIntyre's neck, yanking the smaller man off of their friend with one hand.

"Damn guys!" Ron gasped, backing up and getting to his feet. "Take your sweet time why don't you?"

Matt shrugged as he punched McIntyre in the ribs a few times. "Sorry. We were going as fast as we can." He kicked McIntyre in the nuts just for fun. "You should probably--"

"Go back so I don't see anything I'll have to lie about later," Ron said quickly. "I know the damn drill."

Mark held on to the struggling cop easily, letting the guy's face turn completely purple before violently snapping his neck as soon as Ron was out of sight. "Now see, this is how I like this shit," he said as he let Drew's body drop down to the ground. "Easy, simple, no mess or fuss."

"We still got to get rid of the body," Matt pointed out. "That's kind of messy."

"Yeah, but there's no blood," Mark replied. "Blood is what makes this shit messy. All we have to do with this mother fucker is dump him somewhere."

"In the lake again?"

"No, I think we played that one too much. Cops are starting to watch it."

"We could sneak into the dock doors of that one grocery store and use their compactor. Nobody ever watches shit that goes on back there."

"Good thinking. Then we can go home--"

"No, I told Eve we would party, remember?"

Mark sighed unhappily. "You're really trying to kill me here Hardy, aren't you?"

Matt just laughed. Mark was such a drama queen sometimes. Not that he would ever say that out loud of course....he liked having his head attached to his body too much to do that.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

James and Connor stared up at the Burchill's house with dropped jaws. "Damn, this place is fucking huge!" James said, hating that he was impressed with it. But despite hating it, he couldn't help it. Cops weren't known for making that much money and this was a gigantic three story, Victorian style house that should have been way out of Burchill's league.

"It looks haunted," Connor whispered wisely. "Maybe they got it cheap because of the ghosts."

James didn't even respond to that. No matter what he said after that, Connor was going to keep that belief. Connor and sane beliefs were like oil and water; they just didn't mix. _Burchill must have money from before...or maybe the people who are supposed to live here are dead and Paul and Katie Lea moved in illeagally._

"The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah," Connor sang under his breath. The Burchills' neighbors weren't home, so Connor and James had taken the liberty of climbing up on the roof and spying on their targets from there. Katie was standing outside, watching their pit bull run around and play with a stick. Paul suddenly came outside and wrapped his arms around his sister in a way that wasn't very sibling like. _They are so fucking each other,_ James thought to himself. _I wonder if the other cops can sense this._

Paul suddenly heard something and turned around to go back inside. Katie followed him in, leaving the dog in the yard and the back door wide open. "Bingo baby," he said in triumph. He jumped down from the roof and scaled the fence in front of him, Connor right on his heels. He went past the dog as soon as it started barking at him. He slipped through the back door and came face to face with Katie Lea. She opened her mouth to probably scream, but he grabbed her by the throat and held on tightly. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," he warned her, squeezing her neck to the point that she made a loud choking sound. "You don't want to piss me the fuck off, now do you?"

She responded by digging her nails into into his hand. She was trying to make him let go of her. Laughing at her attempts, he glanced back into the yard. Connor hadn't come in yet because he had stopped to play with the dog. Fucking insane kid. He wasn't good for anything when there were animals around to distract him.

"Katie I need to go and--" Paul stopped talking and walking when he saw James. "You!" he snarled, remembering the last time he had seen James.

James grinned and turned Katie around so that she could look at her brother. "Hey there Paulie," he said cheerfully. "You know, you and I didn't get to finish anything when you were bugging little Evan the other day."

Paul clenched and unclenched his fists. He was shaking because he was so angry. "If you wanted to talk, you shouldn't have grabbed my sister," he growled.

"Sister? You mean this isn't your lover?" James asked. He looked down at Katie and ran his fingers over her face. "I saw the way you were holding her just a couple of minutes ago. There's more than a brother/sister thing here."

"You don't know--"

"Oh I know exactly what I'm talking about," James said quickly. "I of all people would know about stuff like this." He put his lips next to Katie Lea's ear. "Although I have to say, my Annabelle was much prettier than you are."

What he got for that little comment was his leg being stabbed with something. He let out a shout of surprise and pain and let Katie go. There was a small pocket knife sticking out of him now. Paul quickly moved forward, a knife now in his hands that was being aimed towards James's chest. James moved out of the way, yanking the pocket knife out of his leg. Paul screeched to a halt and tried to change direction, but James was already on the move. He drove his broad shoulders into Paul's stomach and forced him backwards until his back hit the kitchen counter. With his leg oozing blood, James stood straight up and rocked Paul with brutal punches. Paul managed to hit him on the leg and then went for a butcher's knife that was on the counter. James went to stab him first but Katie jumped on his back and began clawing at his eyes.

"Mother fucker!" James yelled, reaching up and grabbing Katie by the hair. With one good yank he tossed her into Paul, which knocked the knife out of the Ripper's hand. Taking both his usual knife and the pocket knife Katie had used, he stabbed them both in the heart at the same time, killing them pretty much instantly.

Connor came into the room at that moment, the dog right on his heels. "This is Thor," he announced. "I want to keep him."

"Whatever," James muttered. He wasn't going to argue with Connor right now. He had some clean up to do at the moment. "Can you do me a favor and go see if you can find some gasoline? We need to burn this place to the ground."

"Okay Daddy," Connor said.

James sighed as Connor went off to do that. His leg hurt like a bitch but that would go away soon enough. He just had to let the damn pain pass. _I wonder how the hell the others are doing. Hopefully they haven't had the trouble I just did._


	3. Get Psycho

Jeff twirled the grape sucker around in his mouth as he walked down the street, swinging his hips from side to side and trying to ignore that his nipples felt like they were going to freeze off at any second. Should he have insisted on going home and getting another shirt? Probably, but he also knew that he looked damn good in the shirt that he was in. And since he (and Glenn, who was hiding out in the shadows so that he wasn't seen) were scoping out the seediest part of the city for Masters, he needed to look way more appealing than the actual whores that were out wondering around at the moment. _Masters better be out here tonight,_ he thought to himself as he lingered at the corner. _If I become a nippleless boy wonder for nothing I am going to be so pissed._

He folded his arms over his chest, wincing as the fishnet that was his shirt rubbed against his nipples, causing the hardened nipples to ache. He groaned, actually kind of liking the fact that he was feeling some pain. Biting his lips, he tried to put that out of his head. If he started going down that road, he was going to get so horny that he would have to go after Glenn and get fucked until he couldn't remember his own name. And if he did that, they could miss their chance at Masters. That wouldn't be good at all.

"Oh great, it's one of those fucking twinks."

"Ugh, why can't he stay on his own block? Why does he have to go on ours?"

Jeff turned around. He recognized those voices. They belonged to Rosa Mendes and Alicia Fox, two of the many prostitutes that roamed the city. He had seen them at some of the parties he had been to before, and he really didn't like them. Of course, once he turned around and they saw his face, they quickly decided that the corner down the block would be much better for their business. He watched them go carefully, resisting the urge to go after them and end their unholy existences. _Snotty fucking bitches. What the fuck gives them the right to fucking act like that? And who the hell would pay to have sex with them anyway? If I were straight or at least bi, I would have to get paid big money to even touch them._

Glenn stepped out of the shadows long enough to raise an eyebrow at Jeff. He seemed to know exactly what the younger man was thinking. Jeff pouted his lips, indicating that he was not happy at the moment. Glenn just shook his head and motioned for Jeff to get back to work. Still pouting, Jeff looked back out on the street. There were absolutely no cars coming his way. This was going to be a long night.

Jeff stayed on the corner he was at for a few minutes before walking around a little bit to keep warm. His patience was beginning to wear thin. If something didn't happen soon he was literally going to go insane. He wasn't even joking around. He was going to yank his own hair out and start screaming bloody murder. That would at least give him something to do.

Finally, after a couple of more minutes, a covertible turned the corner and started heading towards him. He did his best to look through the windshield to see who it was. _Damn, it took him long enough_, he thought to himself as he saw it was Masters. He started sucking on his sucker suggestively, knowing damn well nobody could resist him when he did that. _Glenn better be watching and quick to follow this guy to wherever he takes me. If I actually have to touch his dick, I will be so pissed._

Masters stopped the car and put the passenger's side window down. "What's a pretty thing like you doing out here?" he asked, openly leering at the outfit that Jeff was wearing. "You're not looking for trouble, now are you?"

_Ugh, somebody shoot me. This guy is so lame._ "Of course not," Jeff said innocently. "What about you? Are you looking for trouble?" _Because you've found it mother fucker...ugh, why do I always have to do this shit? I'm tired of seducing oafs who look like they got beaten with an ugly stick. It's just not fair._

"No, I don't want any trouble," Masters said. "I'm just looking for some company." He looked around to make sure they weren't being watched. "How about you keep me company? I promise, I'll make it worth your while."

_It will be worth my while, but not for the reasons you think it will._ "It's gonna cost you," Jeff warned him. "And I'm not supposed to go too far. You have to keep me within a mile from here." He said that mainly to make Glenn's job of catching up easier.

"You got a pimp who likes to keep you on a short leash or something?" Masters asked. He looked slightly annoyed with the request Jeff made.

"You have no idea," Jeff said. "He's big and bald and scary looking. You don't want to mess with him."

Masters snorted. "We'll see about that." He opened the pasenger side door for Jeff. "Get in. There's a place not that far from here we can go."

Jeff got in and slammed the door shut. The car was nice and warm, which was the only good thing he could find about this situation. He continued to suck on his sucker obscenely as Masters drove off. What he wanted to do was make this car wreck and have Masters's stupid face smash through the windshield, but he didn't want himself to get hurt in the process. So he waited, letting Masters drive him to the old drive-in just four blocks away from the block he had been picked up at. As the drive continued, he very discreetly fingered the dagger that was in his pocket. It had been a birthday present from James and it was his favorite one of all.

Once they were in the old drive-in, Masters parked the car and turned to face him. "You good with your mouth?"

Jeff nodded, ignoring the fact that he had heard that heard something like that from a person, time and place he would rather forget.

Masters smirked, unzipping his jeans and then reaching out and grabbing Jeff by the back of the head.

_"Jeff come here."_

_"No, leave me alone."_

_"Oh come on Jeff, show them how good you are with your mouth."_

_"I said no! Leave me alone!"_

Jeff, still trapped in his memory, screamed and took the dagger out of his pocket. Without even fully realizing what he was doing, he began stabbing Masters in the chest, throat, crotch and face over and over again, still screaming and driving himself into a complete and total frenzy. Blood was going everywhere: the windshield, the seats, him, the wheel; staining and pooling into splatters and puddles...

Suddenly he was grabbed from behind and dragged out of the car. He whirled around, the dagger raised and ready to come down. Glenn grabbed his wrist and shook him until he quieted down. "What the fuck are you doing?" Glenn asked, keeping a tight grip on him. "Have you lost your damn mind?"

Jeff breathed heavily, trying to calm himself down. He didn't even begin to answer Glenn's question. _Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out._

Glenn sighed and looked into the car. "Did you touch anything in there but the inside handle?" he asked.

Jeff shook his head.

"Okay then." Glenn took a rag out of his pocket and wiped that handle down as good as he could. Jeff turned away from him and looked down at himself. He was covered in blood now and his hands were shaking. The effort it was taking to put the bad memory deep inside his mind so that he didn't think about it anymore was making him feel weak and exhausted. Now that it had been resurfaced, it didn't want to go away again.

"I think we should probably get some gasoline and burn this thing up," Glenn said, stepping away from the car. "If you left any other evidence we can't--"

Jeff turned Glenn to face him and then attacked the older man's mouth with his own. He put his arms around Glenn's neck, holding on tightly and refusing to let go or stop his kissing for even a second. Glenn half heartedly tried to push him off at first, but soon he gave in and he lifted Jeff up and backed them over to the old concession stand. Jeff's hands began working on their belts, but with his shaking hands, Glenn had to step in and get them off and their pants down. "Fuck me," Jeff growled, jumping up and wrapping his legs around Glenn's waist. "Do it now."

"Who the fuck said you gave the orders around here?" Glenn growled back, pulling on Jeff's hair until he let out a yelp of pain. But despite what he had just said, he was already shoving two fingers inside of Jeff roughly, stretching the smaller man not so gently. Jeff didn't mind though. He wanted it rough. He needed to feel some pain. It would help him forget about the bad stuff again. And he needed to do that or he was going to go insane.

Soon the fingers were gone and Glenn spit on his hand, coating his dick with just a little bit of the saliva before thrusting into Jeff's body. Jeff moaned loudly, clawing at the back of Glenn's shirt desperately. He moaned again as Glenn pulled almost all the way out before thrusting in again violently. Jeff bit the larger man's neck, lapping up the blood he drew. The pace Glenn was setting was unbelievably hard and he knew that neither of them were going to last long. Keeping one arm wrapped around Glenn's neck, he moved the other one down so he could grab a hold of his cock and stroke it hard. "Oh fuck...mmmmppphhh...please...fuck!" Glenn hit his prostate dead on, causing him to cum hard. Glenn thrusted in a few more times, drenching Jeff's insides with his hot, sticky seed soon enough.

"Damn," Jeff muttered, wincing as he was set down on his own two feet. His ass kind of hurt now and his back had been rubbed raw where his shirt had come up.

Glenn shook his head. "I think you have issues Jeff," he muttered, kissing the smaller man on the top of his head.

Jeff shrugged, his eyes looking down to see that his cum had mixed in with the bloodstains that were on his shirt. He didn't admit it out loud, but that actually started to get him hot all over again. _Yup, I'm the poster child of issues. _"Yeah....I want Skittles now."

Glenn rolled his eyes. "You and your damn Skittle obsession," he muttered. "Let's take care of the body real quick and then we'll go home and get you some. Okay?"

"Okay."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Dolph Ziggler. That was the name that kept going over and over again in Cooper's mind. If he wasn't in his current mood, he would be asking what kind of parent named their child Dolph. It was one of the worst names he had ever heard in his life. But since he was in his pissed off and agitated state, the whole name thing was not really much of an issue. "Dolphie Dolphie Dolphie," he said, shaking his head and circling the narcissitic man who was currently tied to a chair. "You're not so tough now are you Dolphie? Not when I'm not drunk and you have your boys to back you up."

Dolph said something, but it was muffled by the gag that was in his mouth.

Cooper snarled and smacked the bleached blonde on the back of the head. He didn't want to hear a damn thing the dirty cop had to say. The last time he had come face to face with Ziggler, he had been drunk off his ass and searching for Connor, who had taken the liberty of going missing. Ziggler had been with McIntyre, Masters and Burchill, and Cooper had learned first hand about the true meaning of police brutality. Ziggler had hit him on the back of the head with his night stick, and left him vulnerable for a beating. He hadn't told the others about because it was something he didn't want to talk about. And even though he would have rathered hunt each of the four mother fuckers down himself, doing that would have revealed all this to be personal matter and too many questions would have been asked.

"You know Ziggles, I hate having to hold grudges," Cooper said, using his knife to rip open Dolph's shirt. "It just weighs me down and makes me feel like shit." He began tracing the knife up and down the captured man's body, making very shallow cuts as he did so. "But your little sneak attack made me one very unhappy boy." He grabbed Ziggler by the hair and yanked his head up so he could look into his eyes. "And when I'm unhappy, somebody has to die." He smirked. "And tonight, that somebody is you."

It sounded like Dolph was starting to plead for his life, but Cooper wasn't listening. He quickly slipped some rubber gloves on and then stabbed Dolph right in the stomach. Dolph made some kind of sickening, gutteral groaning sounds as Cooper sliced him open completely, reaching in with his left hand to literally take out the guy's guts. _It's a good thing Connor isn't here right now. He would be going absolutely apeshit crazy about this._ Cooper worked the knife up, cutting open Dolph's chest and splitting it as wide as it could go. He took the time to cut out the now dead cop's lungs and heart, tossing them down to the floor with the other internal organs that were there. Was it an overkill? He didn't really think so, and he didn't give a shit if someone thought it was. It wasn't any of their fucking business.

"Boys and girls of every age, wouldn't you like to see something strange," he sang under his breath as he began stabbing Ziggler's neck over and over again. "Come with us and you will see, this our town of Halloween." He kept singing the song as he kept up with his stabbing, not stopping until he could take Ziggler's head right off his shoulders. Then, just for kicks, he cut out the eyes and tongue and tossed them into the intesting pile before tossing the head across the room and knocking over a lamp. "He shoots he scores!" he said triumphantly, knocking over the chair that still had Dolph's body tied to it. He looked around, very satisfied with what he had accomplished there. _Is it wrong that I'm still kind of hungry now? Hmmm...ah well, who gives a shit? I'm going to get some pizza._


	4. Cyanide Sweet Tooth Suicide

_Damn it, why can't I ever have a day off without something happening?_ John thought to himself as he rolled out of bed. It was eight in the morning and he really wanted to still be sleeping. But Lt. McMahon had called him and told him about the murders of Officers Ziggler, Masters, McIntyre, Burchill and his sister Katie. She had been freaking the hell out and told him to come in with everyone else so they could all be debriefed on the matter. Figuring out who murdered four of their own was taking priority over just about everything else, including days off.

After putting on his clothes, he began hunting through his room for his gun and detective shield. In the middle of doing that, his phone rang again. "hello?" he said as he picked it up, not really stopping his search for a second.

"Baby? Could you drive Stacy and me to the mall so we can shop?"

John groaned as he found his detective shield and stuck it in his pocket. Torrie, his girlfriend for the past year, was the one on the phone. "Honey I can't. I got go to work."

"But it's your day off," she pointed out.

"It was until about ten minutes ago," he told her. "But someone killed some cops last night and Stephanie wants all hands on deck."

Torrie sighed. "Oh God, are you serious? Who would even do that?"

"I don't know," John replied, finally finding his gun. He attached it to his belt. "That's what we're going to have to find out." He started looking around for his tennis shoes. "What's wrong with your car anyway?"

"It just got repainted and I don't want to have Stacy take us in her car. You know how bad of a driver she is."

"I know she sucks at it," John said sympathetically, not mentioning the fact that Stacy really sucked as a human being as well. She was shallow, vain and a terrible influence on Torrie. Without Stacy around, Torrie was (and still could be) the sweetest girl alive. But when Keibler came around, Torrie started absorbing her personaility traits, and that was not a good thing at all. "Look, if you don't want her to drive, take a cab or have someone drop you off. I honestly don't have time to do it. Dave's on his way to pick me up--"

"Oh yeah, I need to tell you something else," Torrie said quickly, completely interrupting him. "I um...Stacy wants me to come with her to this concert with her tomorrow--"

"Tomorrow is Dave and Oscar's party," John reminded her, finally finding and slipping on his shoes. "Remember? Their anniversary? The VIP Lounge? We told them we would come a month ago."

"I know, but Andrew got called away on business and she had the tickets for three months now and she doesn't want to go alone..."

John sighed. He knew he was fighting a losing battle. He knew damn well that Torrie really didn't care for Dave and Oscar all that much so this whole concert excuse was bullshit. "Whatever, just go with Stacy. I'll just go to Dave's thing myself."

"Are you mad at me?" Torrie asked.

"No, I'm just in a hurry." He glanced out his window and saw that Dave was pulling up in his driveway. "I've got to go babe. Dave's here now. I'll tell him something came up for you tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay. Thanks John. Bye."

John sighed as he hung up his phone. He and Torrie barely said "I love you" anymore. As much as he hated to admit it, the possibility that their relationship was going to fall completely apart sooner rather than later was getting more and more unavoidable.

Dave, who had been John's partner for six years, knew something was wrong as soon as he got into the car. "Torrie?" he guessed immediately.

John nodded. "How did you know?"

"You always get a certain look on your face when you're having problems with her." Dave backed out of the driveway and started driving to the police station. "So what is it this time?"

"She's not coming to your party tomorrow. She says Stacy needs her tomorrow for some concert thing."

Dave chuckled. "A concert huh? Do you believe her?"

"I don't know," John admitted. "She and Stacy go to a lot of them, but..." He stopped and shook his head. "I don't know." He saw the look on Dave's face. "Oh no."

"What?" Dave said innocently.

"You're going to say she's cheating on me."

"Well--"

"Dave, just because she doesn't want to go to this party, that doesn't mean she's fucking around on me."

"I never said that. But I've seen thousands of girls and guys like Torrie--hell I've dated a few of them..."

"But those were dudes--"

"I dated a few girls before I came to terms with my sexuality," Dave said seriously. "I do know what they are like. Now I'm not saying that Torrie is actually cheating on you because she is a sweet girl. But it's a possibility you can't rule out just because you don't like it."

John shook his head. "I don't want to talk about this anymore. Let's talk about the dead cops. They are our fallen bretheren you know."

"First of all, don't talk all corny like that," Dave told him. "Those four were assholes to the highest degree and Burchill's sister was fucking evil."

"Yeah but still--"

"Dude, those guys were dirty cops," Dave interrupted. "And you know it. They abused the power they had and I'm telling you right now, my guess is, those Murder City Saints guys took matters into their own hands."

"And do you think that's right?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know?" John said in disbelief. "The MCS are bunch of vigilantes who brutally murder people. I know their victims are never actually innocent, but that doesn't make their killing justified."

Dave shook his head. "I know but maybe it doesn't have to be right. Come on man, you know how bad things were before the MCS popped up. We went to work every night literally not knowing whether we would be alive when our shift was over. Hell, even just going out to run errands was insanely dangerous because of all the shootings and shit. Maybe the MCS don't do things ethically or lawfully, but we're sure as fuck safer with them around." He gave John a serious look before pulling into the police station parking lot. "I've got two daughters Cena. For years I was terrified to even let them out of my sight. Stephanie will tell us that we need to take down the Saints, but she can kiss my ass. The Saints have made my daughters' lives so much fucking safer and as far as I'm concerned, they can do whatever it is they need to do to keep that up.

John just sighed. He understood where Dave was coming from. He did remember how bad things used to be. The Saints, whoever they were (their idenities were all a mystery....to the police anyway. There was a good chance that the people out on the streets knew but they still wouldn't give up any names), had definitely made the city safer. The question was, were the overall results worth the tactics they used? Dave (and a lot of other people) definitely thought so. John wasn't so sure about that. The MCS definitely got carried away with themselves a lot of the time and it made him wonder just who they actually were. _Of course, if this goes like any of the other MCS cases, we're not going to get any closer to finding out who these guys are. And then Stephanie's going to get pissed and then our lives at work will become a living hell for a long as time. Ugh. This is going to suck._

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"DAMN IT ALL TO HELL! WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS FUCKING THING? WHY DOESN'T IT WORK RIGHT? IT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO BURN MY FUCKING FOOD!"

Mark, who had been fucking asleep up until that point, groaned and opened his eyes. It was now eleven in the morning and James was screaming at the top of his lungs. Now if they were having sex, Mark loved it when James screamed. But if it wasn't coming from that, the noise was just fucking annoying. "Fucking bastard," he muttered. He closed his eyes again and tried to go back to sleep. "I've shown him how to cook a thousand times but does he ever fucking learn? No, because he is a retard."

With that, Mark attempted to go back to sleep. He really did. But about five minutes later, he heard his door open. Now normally he would have opened his eyes to see who the fuck was coming in uninvited, but he was determined to have his sleep, so he kept his eyes closes. After another minute, someone laid down on top of him and began kissing his neck. He finally opened his eyes, expecting to see Jeff. But the person wasn't Jeff.

It was Connor.

"Boy, what the hell are you doing?" Mark yelled, more than a little freaked out at the moment. "Who told you that you could come in here?"

"Cooper won't play with me," Connor said sadly. "And I'm horny."

"Yeah, I can feel that," Mark said, pushing Connor off of him. "But I'm cranky and fucking still spent from---" he glanced at the clock one more time---"five hours ago." He and James had literally been up till six in the morning fucking each other's brains out. He was definitely going to be feeling the effects of that for the rest of the damn day.

Connor pouted. "Why does nobody love me?" he asked. He sounded like he was about to cry. "Why won't you people at least just use me for my body? At least that would mean you love me a little."

Mark shook his head. "Sorry buddy. Go bug Glenn, Jeff or Matt. I'm sure they'll have their way with you."

"Or maybe Tom will play with me. I'm sure---"

"Tom?" Mark said, sitting straight up. "Tom is in Europe."

Connor shook his head. "He's back. He's called the other day and told me he was coming over today to show us some weapons."

"And you were planning on telling us when?"

"Uh.....I don't know." Connor put a strand of his hair into his mouth and chewed on it. "Do you think Matt will get mad if I tie Jeff up if he tries to say he doesn't want to have sex with me?"

Mark shrugged as he got out of bed. "I don't know nor do I actually care. I've got bigger things to worry about at the moment." He grabbed his jeans and quickly slid them on. "I have to ease James into the whole--"

"WHO IN THE BLUE HELL INVITED TOM OVER HERE?"

Mark groaned and pretty much sprinted downstairs. James was the only one of them who didn't like Tom, so his complaints about Tom being their weapons dealer went largely ignored. Of course, it didn't help that Tom wasn't James's biggest fan and he in fact did everything in his power just to egg James on. _Some people are just destined to never get along. Of course, knowing these two, their violent hatred of each other could kill us all._

Mark found everyone (with the exception of Connor, who was still upstairs in Mark's room) in the kitchen by the time he got there. James was completely agitated by Tom's presence already and Tom was enjoying every single minute of it. "Hey Marky," Tom said when he noticed Mark.

James snarled and threw a knife at Tom's head, causing Tom, Glenn, Matt and Jeff to duck for cover. The knife buried itself into the wall, making Mark wince. If Tom hadn't moved when he did, James would have gotten him.

"Only I call him Marky!" James growled. "Do you understand me? Me! I have the right to call him Marky, not you!"

"Dude, would you calm the fuck down?" Matt asked, sounding kind of scared of James at the moment. "We've talked about your anger management issues--"

"Fuck you Hardy," James snapped.

Tom yanked the knife out of the wall and glared at James. "You know, I didn't even do anything to piss you off this time. All I did was walk in--"

"Exactly! Can't you see where you went wrong?"

"Well maybe you should have a talk with Connor then. He's the one who insisted I come over." Tom twirled the knife around in his hands. James's yelling, knife throwing and overall unpleasantness didn't rattle him in the least; he was on the receiving end of that any time he was within a twenty foot range of James. He was completely used to it at this point.

James folded his arms over his chest. "And why would he do that?"

"How the hell should I know? He's your psychotic hellspawn! You should be the one who knows what he's thinking."

Mark snorted. "I don't think anyone can truly understand Connor's thought process," he said. "That boy's brain has never been right."

"Yeah," Cooper agreed. "It was probably the incest that did it."

James glared at Cooper. "You just shut your fucking mouth," he growled. "This is not the day to have a smart mouth with me. First the damn stove burns my food--"

Tom snorted. "I don't think the stove needed to burn your food. You do that fine all by yourself Mr. Iron Chef."

Mark saw that James was about to lunge at Tom and he quickly restrained his long time lover. "Would you stop?" he muttered. "You need to calm the fuck down."

James glared at Mark. "Why do you always take his side?" he whined.

"I'm not taking his damn side! I'm just telling you not to act like a damn nutcase!"

James continued his glaring before shoving Mark away and storming out of the room. Mark groaned and rubbed his temples, the vein by his eye twitching uncontrollably. After a couple of minutes, he went chasing after James. _Oh the things I put up with for him....he's lucky I love him or I would have fucking strangled him a long fucking time ago._

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Everyone stared at the direction James and Mark went quietly, absorbing James's tantrum to its fullest. Then Jeff got bored and decided to break the ice. "Did you bring us presents?" he asked Tom greedily.

Matt smacked Jeff on the arm. "Dude! Don't be rude!"

"I'm not being rude!" Jeff said defensively. "Tom always brings us presents!"

"But you can't--"

"Matt chill, it's cool," Tom ordered. "I've got some stuff out in my car you'll be interested in."

"Yay!" Jeff cheered. He happily followed Tom out of the house, Matt, Cooper and Glenn following them. They went over to Tom's Viper and the weapons dealer opened up the trunk and the backseat doors of the car. They grabbed the cases in there and carried them inside. "Jesus dude, what the fuck did you bring back with you?" Cooper asked. "This shit is heavy."

"It's nothing too much," Tom said casually. "They're just some machine guns that aren't even on the market yet and the one you're holding is a rocket launcher..."

"What?" the others all said at the same time.

"I'm holding a bazooka?" Cooper said in disbelief. He set the case he was holding down on the table and opened it up. "Holy shit balls, I fucking love you now."

Jeff looked at the rocket launcher and giggled happily. It was a thing of absolute beauty. "I wanna blow something up with it," he announced. "Matty? Can we blow something up?"

Matt just stared at the weapon in amazement. "Damn. How in the hell did you manage to get this?"

"Black market," Tom replied. "I think someone else stole it off a military base. It's not something you guys are going to be able to run around with all the time but--"

"Dude, I wanna blow up a cop car," Glenn announced. "Or maybe a cow. We should blow up a cow."

"Aw, but what did a cow ever do to you?" Jeff asked.

"Nothing, but that doesn't matter. I just want to blow one up."

Connor came wandering it at that moment. "What are we blowing up?" he asked.

"A cow apparently," Tom said, shaking his head. "Glenn has apparently forgotten that we live in Detroit and this city is not known for its cow population."

"There's still the cop car option," Glenn said with a pout.

Connor didn't seem as excited as he should have been about the prospect of blowing something up. Jeff was about to ask what was wrong when the younger man suddenly slung him over his shoulders and carried him out of the room. "What the hell are you doing?" he asked as he was carried up the stairs. "Put me down! I wanna go blow stuff up!"

"Not now," Connor replied. "I'm horny." He took Jeff to his room and dumped him on the bed.

"But--" Jeff was cut off by Connor kissing him. He whined and tried to push the psycho away, but Connor was having none of that. Jeff quickly gave in, letting the darker haired boy take control. He knew Connor didn't top a whole lot, but he wasn't about to argue with the guy now. If Connor wanted something from you, it was better to just let him take it. He got scary when you didn't.

Clothes went flying in every direction and Connor's mouth began attacking Jeff's neck. Jeff could feel Connor's erection twitching and dripping with precum already. He moaned sluttishly as Connor nipped at the sensitive skin on his neck, whimpering when he felt a very small part of that skin break. Connor normally wasn't allowed to bite at all because he actually hurt people, but Jeff couldn't help but offer even more of his neck up. The pain felt good to him.

Connor pinned Jeff's hands down above his head and entered him with absolutely no preperation. Jeff arched up and whimpered. "Oh God!" he moaned, kissing and biting along Connor's jawline. "Connor please oh fuck--"

Connor giggled and kissed Jeff's so hard that they bruised. "Pretty bitch," he muttered as he thrusted into Jeff as hard as he could. "My slut." He bit Jeff's lower lip. "Say it."

Jeff shook his head, letting out a yell as Connor hit his prostate.

Connor growled and yanked on Jeff's hair really hard. "Say it!" he demanded.

"Make me," Jeff replied, gasping as he felt that his climax rapidly approaching. One more good thrust would do the trick...

Getting mad, Connor squeezed the base of Jeff's cock so he couldn't cum and bit down on the writhing man's neck as hard as he possibly could. Jeff screamed in pain, tears quickly spilling out of his mind. "Ow ow ow!" he squealed. "Connor stop! Owie! It hurts!" Jeff let out an incoherent scream, the blood dripping down from his neck to his chest. "Okay okay! I'm your bitch! I'm your slut!"

Connor took his teeth out of Jeff's neck and sucked on the bloody wound as he resumed his thrusting and began stroking Jeff's dick on top of that. The mixture of the pleasure and the pain became too much and Jeff came so hard that he saw little black spots dancing in front of his eyes. He moaned loudly, quickly joined by Connor who had come deep inside of him. "Fucking hell Connor," he groaned as he gingerly touched his neck. "That hurt!"

"Uh....whoops?" Connor said in response.

Jeff pouted. "Bastard. I'm going to get you for that."

Connor studied Jeff closely, taking in that threat. Then he just began laughing his damn ass off.

Jeff pouted and angrily pushed Connor off of him. _Why does nobody here ever take me seriously? I could so get them back if I wanted to. Ugh, I am surrounded by assholes._


	5. My World

"This is getting absolutely ridiculous," Mark muttered under his breath. Glenn, Tom, Jeff and Connor had taken off to go play with the rocket launcher and Cooper and Matt had gone somewhere else, which left Mark and James all alone in the house. The only problem was, Mark couldn't find James. He had chased after his lover after the tantrum in the kitchen but he didn't find him then and he still couldn't find him now. "How in the hell can he hide so fucking well?" he muttered under his breath. "A big mother fucker like him shouldn't be able to hide so well. It discriminates against me." He wasn't sure how that statement was true, but he was just going to go with it.

Finally giving up, Mark just went back to the living room so he could watch TV instead. Just as he was reaching for the remote though, someone grabbed him from behind and tackled him down to the floor. "Damn it!" he yelled loudly as his arm was nearly crushed underneath all the weight that came down on top of it. "James!"

James laughed and put Mark into a headlock. "How did you know it was me?"

"You're the only one here besides me jackass," Mark replied, trying to push himself up so he could get an adavantage over James. It wasn't working out so well.

"That's not true," James replied. "Thor and Snoopy are here too."

Connor's dogs, upon hearing their names, ran and jumped on top of Mark too. Mark groaned as they began licking and biting at him playfully. "Really James? You really had to do that?"

"I didn't do anything," James replied. "They just love you a whole bunch."

Mark rolled his eyes and forced both dogs and James to get off of him so he could stand back up. "So are you done throwing your fit then?" he asked, grabbing the remote and plopping down on the couch.

"Is Satan gone?" James replied.

"Yeah. I chopped him up and put him through a meat grinder."

"Really?" James said eagerly.

Mark snorted. "No you idiot. He, Glenn, Jeff and Connor are out playing with some new toys."

"Oh." James looked really disappointed now. "Bitch." He sat down in his chair.

Mark rolled his eyes. _Oh Lord, here we go again_. "Can't you ever just let this whole grudge against him go? This is starting to get annoying."

"He's annoying," James muttered.

"And you're insane. You both have qualities that you hate about each other but at least he tries to act like an adult about it."

"Oh yes. Running his big fucking mouth is so very adult. Yet when I try to let my actions speak louder than words, you--"

"James just stop," Mark ordered, getting a headache from this conversation. "I'm not listening to this. We both know your actions are usually homicidal in nature, so the whole argument that you are currently trying to use isn't a good one."

"I wouldn't say that," James said. "I personally think my argument is the best thing since sliced bread."

Mark rolled his eyes. There was just no talking to James sometimes. If he wanted to believe something, there was nothing in the world that would shake him from it, even if he was totally and completely wrong about it. Sometimes it was cute and other times it was absolutely infuriating.

James, acting completely oblivious to Mark's irritated state, looked at his watch. "Oooh, Jerry Springer is about to start. Turn it to that Marky."

"No," Mark replied. "I wanna watch the news."

James glared at Mark. "The news? Fuck the damn news! Who would choose the news over Jerry Springer, Steve Wilkos and Maury?"

"Someone who doesn't want to get punched in the eye when they try to calm you down," Mark replied. Turning on the television and making sure it was on the news. The last time he watched James's shows with him, the psycho had went....well psycho. James started yelling and getting way to into the stuff, so Mark had tried to calm him down. That turned out to be a big mistake because he ended up getting punched in the eye so hard that it stayed swelled shut for a week. That was not something he was looking forward to have happen again.

James was about to say something nasty to Mark in response, but the news came on and interrupted him. The murders of the four cops were the top story, and Mark put his hands up to hush James up so he could listen and watch. James pouted, but he listened too. It was just like any other report they had watched over the years, but that quickly became a different story when Ziggler's murder was discussed. He was described to be "completely dismembered" and "horribly mutilated", which was not what Cooper had said he had done to the fucker. "What the hell is wrong with your boy?" Mark asked, not really listening to the usual spiel about the suspects. He already knew that the Saints would be suspects. They always were.

James shook his head. "Technically he's your boy--"

"Lawson--"

"I don't know, okay? He told me he went in, killed Ziggler clean and then got out. I don't know why he went so crazy with it and I don't know why he lied to us. Now we can please turn it to my shows?"

Mark sighed and gave in. He was not going to keep fighting with James about this. The shows were not worth the effort. "Why would Cooper lie to us though?" he asked. "I mean, it's not something that could be kept a secret forever."

"Why does it even matter?" James asked, clearly getting irritated with Mark's constant questioning. "The kid got a little carried away--"

"A _little_?"

"Okay, a whole lot," James admitted. "Maybe Ziggler gave him lip or maybe he had an issue with the dude. I don't know, I'm not a mind reader. But come on, cut him a break. I doubt it's going to be a constant thing with him. I'll say something to him, but I don't think we should freak out like you're planning too."

"Whatever," Mark said, just letting the subject go. He had said a million times that they should never let this shit get personal, but obviously he wasn't getting listened to. And while he did feel that he should say something to Cooper, he knew that it would be better just to have James handle it. Cooper would more than likely tell him to go fuck off, and that would defeat the whole purpose of a talk.

James let out a yell as a fight broke out on Springer. "You stupid fat cunt! Sit on that crack whore! You're three times as big as she is!"

Mark groaned. This was going to be a long three hours.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Thank you guys so much for doing this," Tiffany said. "I really, really appreciate it."

"It's no problem," Matt assured her. He, Cooper and Eve were helping Tiffany get supplies into her shelter because JTG and Shad were inside, doing their best to keep the peace between some kids who wanted to fight each other. "You know we like helping you out."

Cooper grunted as they began carrying the boxes in the back door. "What the hell is in this thing?" he asked.

"I think you grabbed the one with cans in it," Tiffany told him. She was carrying several garbage bags full of clothes that had been donated from several different places. "I'm running way over my capacity and I have to buy more food than ever."

"Why don't you just kick some mother fuckers out?" Cooper asked, nearly kicking the kitchen door open so he could hurry up and set the box down on the table. "If you don't got the room--"

"Cooper!" Eve immediately scolded. "These people need her. She just can't kick people out."

"Well what good is being nice going to do if they overrun her?" Cooper countered.

"Nobody's overrunning me," Tiffany said. "Yes I have too many people here but--"

"Tiff, you don't have to explain anything," Matt told her. He glared at Cooper. "Could you cut the attitude dude? We really don't need it right now."

Cooper rolled his eyes. "I'm not giving anyone attitude. I'm just asking questions that need to be asked." He took the liberty of opening the box without permission. "Yuck! Tiff, I don't know if you knew this, but there's only canned vegetables in here."

Tiffany giggled. "I knew that already Cooper. I made sure to buy plenty of them."

Cooper looked at her like she was insane. "Why? Are you trying to toture these poor kids?"

Matt set his box down on the table and patted Cooper on the shoulder. "Dude, I know this might be hard to believe, but not everybody lives off junk like you do."

"I do not live off junk!" Cooper denied. "Chips and candy are not junk. They are a perfectly good--"

"Oh stop it. You're starting to sound like Jeff."

"Fuck you Matt."

"Fuck you too Cooper."

Tiffany and Eve rolled their eyes. "Boys," Eve said with a shake of her head. "How does anyone live with them?"

Tiffany shrugged. "I don't know. I ask myself that all the time."

Matt and Cooper glared at each other, neither of them moving a muscle for the longest time. "Asshole," Matt finally said.

Cooper just flipped Matt off in response, taking off running when Matt tried to grab his finger and break it. Matt chased after him, so focused on getting him that he didn't pay attention to where he was going.

Not until he ran into someone else that is.

"Holy crap!" Evan said, nearly falling on his face. The only reason he didn't was because Matt managed to catch him at the last minute.

"I'm so sorry," Matt apologized, feeling bad that he almost knocked the poor boy flat on his ass. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I think so," Evan said, looking up at Matt with wide eyes. "Um...I um..."

"You're Evan, right?" Matt said, trying to break the awkwardness of the situation. He was aware that he hadn't actually released Evan from his grip yet, but for some reason, he couldn't seem to make himself do it yet.

"Yeah," Evan said, his voice cracking a little bit. "And you're Matt."

"Yeah." Matt just kept staring at Evan and Evan just kept staring back at him. Even though they both had seen each other before, this was the first time they had ever really had a face to face encounter. And for reasons Matt couldn't quite explain, he couldn't keep his eyes off of the teenager now.

"So um...is Tiffany around here somewhere?" Evan asked.

"Uh yeah, she is," Matt confirmed. He pointed back to the room he had come out of. "She's still in there as far as I know. Do you need her?"

"No I um...I was just making conversation." Evan looked down at his feet, his face turning an interesting shade of red.

Matt shoved his hands into his pockets and looked around. He had the feeling they were being watched and he was willing to bet his testicles that the person doing the watching was Cooper. "You're still in high school, right?"

"Yeah," Evan said. "I'm a junior."

"How do you like it?"

"I hate it. I wish I was done already."

"Well at least you only have one more year after this one."

"That's still too much time for that hell hole."

Matt grinned. "I felt the same way when I was your age. Do you have any idea what you want to do after high school?"

"No...it's not really something I want to think about right now. It's too much stress."

"Evan! Dude, where are you?"

"Oh, that's Shannon," Evan said, looking a little disappointed at the interruption. "I gotta go."

"See ya," Matt said, watching the boy walk away. He was so distracted by that that he didn't notice Cooper coming over to him until the eldest Lawson boy opened his big mouth.

"That kid was so totally into you."

Matt frowned at Cooper. "What are you talking about?"

Cooper snorted. "Bourne was so into you and you were into him. I could see it in your guys's eyes."

"Dude, you are so on crack. We were just talking. Hell, we don't even really know each other!"

"So? You don't need to know each other to fuck each other. You just need a boner and he just needs to spread his legs."

Matt gave Cooper a disgusted look. "You're a fucking pig dude."

"Yeah...it's what I do best."

Matt rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Let's just get going. We've got more boxes to get out of that truck."

"Buzzkill."

"Yeah, that's what _I_ do best."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Jeff hummed under his breath, trying to break the awkward silence that had been in place for about the last half hour now. He, Connor, Glenn and Tom had left the city to go find something to blow up with the rocket launcher. They had actually found an old abandoned house that had a couple of sheds by it that they could have had some real fun with, but they didn't get a chance to do anything to it. While they had taken the liberty of making sure that the coast was clear and there was nobody around to hear them, Connor got his hands on the rocket launcher and well...things got ugly.

"Would you please be quiet Jeff?" Glenn asked. He was about five shades paler than usual, so he looked beyong an albino at the moment. "I've already nearly been killed by the demon child today and I really just need some quiet time right now."

Tom shook his head. "I know you're traumatized Glenn. I mean, it was you Connor tried to kill. But did you really have to dive behind my Viper? I mean, if Connor's aim had been off or if he would have moved it before he fired it, my fucking car would have been blown up instead of that tree!"

"Oh that's great Tom. Care more about your car than me. That's really fucking nice."

"Hey, I didn't have to fucking pay for you Crispy. I fucking--"

"You fucking call me that again, I'm going to fucking strangle you and kill you in your own precious car," Glenn threatened. "I fucking mean it."

Tom smirked. "Do you threaten to do that to James and Mark when they call you that?"

"No because those freaks would like it."

"I'd like it too!" Connor announced happily. He didn't seem to give a shit about the fact that Glenn and Tom were not happy with him at the moment. "Cooper chokes me all the time."

Tom groaned. "Kid, for the love of God, keep that information to yourself. I don't need to hear it."

"Would you choke me Tommy?"

"No because I don't want James ripping my arms off and beating my brains out with them. I actually like having my arms attached to my body."

"Damn. Glenn?"

"How about I blow you up instead?"

"Ugh no. That's no fun."

"You can ask me," Jeff pointed out.

Connor shook his head. "No I can't Twinkie. We've been over this before."

Jeff growled and smacked Connor as hard as he could. He was really tired of being treated like he couldn't do anything just because he was the token "twink" of the group. "The only person you top is me asshole! Otherwise you're a twink too."

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

Tom pulled over at a convienance store. "I need a beer," he announced.

"But you're driving!" Glenn pointed out.

"I don't care anymore. I'm going to go insane if I don't get something to help me deal with this."

Jeff and the others got out of the car after Tom did. "I want Skittles," Jeff announced, bouncing up and down like a small child. "Skittles and Mountain Dew. I want them."

"Oh yes, because that combination will make you much easier to put up with," Glenn muttered.

Jeff stuck his tongue out before wondering off to get his treats. Connor was on his heels, hell bent on getting M&M's just to piss him off. Resisting the urge to turn around and kick Connor in the nuts, he grabbed his delicious fruity candy and was about to get his drink when he ran into Detective Batista. "Hi Dave!" he said cheerfully.

"Hey Jeff," Dave said. He was holding an energy drink and a hot dog. "How ya doin'?"

"Good," Jeff replied. He had met Dave through Oscar, and he was one of the few people who still didn't distrust Dave for his occupation. Batista really was a good guy. "That your lunch?"

"Yeah," Dave said. "It's going to be a long day cuz of those murders and I'm not going to have time to eat a whole bunch." He looked back at the guy getting a drink out of one of the coolers. "John come on. Don't take all day dude."

John grabbed a thing of Pepsi and turned around. Jeff's breath caught in his throat and he couldn't stop himself from staring. He had heard of John because Oscar mentioned him from time to time, but this was the first time that he had ever seen Dave's partner. _Holy crap....he's hot._

Dave stared back and forth between Jeff and John (who was staring at Jeff like he had never seen a dude before), chuckling and dragging his partner away. "See ya later Jeff," he said. "We've got to go."

Jeff watched them go, disappointed that he didn't think of anything cool or interesting to say while John had been around. _Damn it, I suck so fucking bad._ He grabbed his Mountain Dew and turned around to find Tom, Glenn and Connor staring at him in amusement. "What?" he said, getting very annoyed.

Glenn shook his head. "Oh where to start...I don't even know."

Connor giggled. "You looked really stupid just now."

Jeff huffed angrily and stormed past them. "You can all go fuck yourselves!" he said angrily.

"Wait, what did _I_ do?" Tom asked. "I didn't even say anything!"

Jeff ignored him. He just paid for his purchases and stormed out of the store. He could almost hear Glenn muttering about him throwing another damn hissy fit, but he didn't give a shit. He had felt stupid enough as it was and he hadn't needed Connor to point it out and make it worse. _Stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid...._


	6. Definition of Destiny

_Blackpool, England_

The old, vine covered mansion that sat up on the hill overlooking the lake was completely quiet. Nobody was around the outside of it, and nobody inside of it was daring to make a sound. The maids, the cooks and all the other hired help were gathered downstairs, afraid to even move around down there in case it attracted the attention of the people upstairs in the study. Those people in question were also quiet, although they weren't quiet out of fear. One was lost in thought, one was brooding (while looking like he smelled something foul) and one was possibly mute.

"Paul was very dear to me," Sir William Regal stated, talking to nobody in particular. Just a couple of hours ago, he had learned about the deaths of his cousins Paul and Katie Lea. The news had sent him into a rage, and he had destroyed just about everything breakable he owned. "And Katie...my dear Katie..." He shook his head. "I knew they should have never gone to America. They had everything they could ever want right here in England. Paul was the Ripper...he was supposedly the descendent of Jack the Ripper himself. He could have had any victim he chose and he would always have me watching over him, making sure he was never caught. And dear Katie...she could have had any man she wanted...as long as he was good enough for her of course." He looked at the two men in front of him. Vladmir Kozlov was on the right and Ezekial Jackson was on the left. Kozlov used to work for the Russian military before coming to England and being taken under Regal's wing. Ezekial on the other hand, was an American, but since he rarely talked and he was good at following orders, Regal let him work for him. "This cannot go unavenged. Do you understand me?"

Both Kozlov and Jackson nodded. "Ve understand," Kozlov replied in his thick, Russian accent. "Plane vill be ready soon. Ve go to America vith you."

"Yes, of course," Regal said, grabbing the cup of tea that was sitting on his desk and stirring it. "I wouldn't have it any other way." He leaned back in his chair and dismissed his two lackeys with a wave of his hand. They both nodded and walked out of the room. Regal sighed before taking a sip of his tea. He had been to America once as a boy and he had sworn that he would never go back. The people there were positively barbaric. No, that was not the place for him. His place for him was in his native England, serving his country as a member of the Parliament. But now he had to go there, find the people who murdered his own flesh and blood and destroy them. The people in the dredful city Paul and Katie had moved to couldn't be trusted to find the killers. No, they would screw it up, just like they screwed everything up. It was going to be up to him to find the killer (or killers) and make them pay.

Oh yes, he was going to make them pay quite dearly.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"Thor? Snoopy? Where are you?" Connor called out, crawling around on all fours on the kitchen floor, looking for his beloved dogs. It was like they were playing hide and seek with him and he was losing, which was not very fun at all. "Come on, I wants to tell you about the guy Jeff now has a crush on."

"I do not have a crush on him!" Jeff whined. He had been pouting the entire way home and it hadn't stopped now. "I don't even know him!"

"You want to know him though," Glenn said with a smirk.

Tom glared at him and shook his head. "Would you leave Jeff alone? It's bad enough Connor won't let up. You don't need to add to it."

Glenn rolled his eyes. "Oh come on, he knows I'm just teasing."

Jeff folded his arms over his chest. "No! You're being mean and I want you to stop it!"

Connor whistled under his breath, still looking for Snoopy and Thor. At that moment, Mark came in from the living room, looking absolutely exhausted. Snoopy and Thor were right on his heels. Both dogs barked happily when they saw Connor and they trotted right over to him. "Yay!" Connor cheered, hugging his doggies tightly. He giggled as they gave him lots of kisses. Dogs were his favorite animal. If he could turn himself and every other human on the planet into a dog, he would do it in a heartbeat.

"You okay Mark?" Tom asked. "You kinda look like shit."

"Kinda?" Mark replied. "Don't sugar coat it Tom; I'm barely surviving in there. James and his stupid day time talk shows are going to be the death of me."

"I don't get why you watch them if you hate them so much," Jeff said as he shook his head. He was digging around in one of the drawers, looking for one of his stashes of Skittles. Of course, he didn't know that Connor had found them the other day and had already eaten them. Connor wondered if he should tell Jeff what he had done, but he decided against it. It would be much more fun to let him figure it out on his own.

"Mark watches them with James because he loves the crazy ass mother fucker," Tom explained to Jeff. "Why he loves him, I don't know. That'll be something I'll never understand."

"Well I don't get it it either," Jeff declared.

"That's because you don't believe in love," Mark pointed out. "You wouldn't get it."

"Snoopy, Thor, Jeff did fall in love with the guy at the store," Connor said knowingly. He smiled, seeing Jeff's irritated expression out of the corner of his eye. "He just doesn't know it yet because he's stupid."

"For the last time, I did not fall in love with that guy!" Jeff shouted at the top of his lungs. "I just...I thought about fucking him, okay?"

James (who had just come in from the living room), Matt and Cooper (who had just gotten back from wherever the hell they had been) all stopped and stared at Jeff. "Okay, somebody is going to have to explain what's going on," Matt said. "Because I am so totally lost right now."

"Yeah," Cooper agreed. "Who does Jeff want to fuck?"

Jeff turned a deep shade of red and buried his face into his hands. Connor giggled and tugged on the leg of James's jeans. "Daddy? Daddy? Guess what?"

James looked down at him and grinned. "What?"

"Woof woof!" Connor giggled insanely before rolling around on the floor.

James shook his head. "You're crazy Connor."

"I know," Connor replied happily.

Jeff let out a cry of frustration. "Where are my Skittles?" he whined. "I had Skittles here but they're all gone now!"

"Why would you leave Skittles there?" Matt asked. "That's not a very safe place to keep them."

"But I need Skittles stashed everywhere just in case!" Jeff insisted. His eyes turned towards Connor. "You! You always eat my candy!"

Connor just cackled, unable to even begin to deny the accusation. Jeff howled and lunged at him, only to be restrained by Tom and Matt. "Oh come on, let them go!" James whined. "We could pretend that we're on Springer!"

"James, shut up," Mark ordered. "Jeff, you calm down. Connor, stop stealing Jeff's candy. You know better than that."

Connor pouted. He in fact did know better than that, but he wasn't sure why he should even care. Candy was candy and finders were the keepers. "Daddy! Tell Mark I want to keep stealing Jeff's candy!"

James put his hands up. "Don't look at me. Mark's already irritated as it is and I'm really going to push it when I tell him that we need to go to the Adult Emporium to get Dave and Oscar an anniversary present."

Mark groaned. "James! Not again! Twice a week is enough! If I see one more dildo I'm going to go insane."

Cooper chuckled. "That sounds like a movie right there. Attack of the Killer Dildos..." He looked at James. "You think we should actually try to make that movie?"

James shrugged. "It's worth a try."

Mark groaned as the two of them left the room. "That's it, I need a break," he announced. He started heading towards the back door. "I'm going to go find out if we need to go kill anyone."

"So seriously Jeff, who did you want to fuck?" Matt asked. He was bringing them back on to that topic.

Jeff groaned. "Matt! I don't want to talk about it!"

"Why not?"

"Because he stood there just staring at the guy with a stupid look on his face," Connor piped up. "He feels like an idiot and you now how bitchy he gets when that happens."

Jeff glared at him before turning on his heels and storming out. Matt sighed and chased after him, pleading with his little brother to calm down and talk to him. That left Glenn, Tom and Connor all alone in the kitchen.

Tom looked back and forth between the two remaining members of the Saints. "I'm just so glad I met you guys," he said. It was really hard to tell if he was being serious or sarcastic. "Honestly, it's very entertaining."

XXXXXXXX

John tried to focus on the task at hand. He and Dave were at the parking lot that Masters' car and body had been found at. This was their third time going through it. Stephnaie was demanding that each and every crime scene get looked at until they were absolutely sure they hadn't missed anything. Of course, if the texts that were being exchanged were an indicator of anything, things were not exactly going so well so far. Alex Shelly and Chris Sabin could tell that Drew's body had only been dumped into the compactor at the grocery store, but they hadn't found anything that would indicate he had been killed anywhere near there. The fire at Paul and Katie's house had burned away pretty much all the evidence, so that didn't make things easy for Gail and AJ. And as for crime scene at Ziggler's house...well, John just hoped that Victoria's and Christy's stomach held up, because he had seen some of the photos that had been taken first thing in the morning, and it was a mess.

"Okay, I've got nothing," Dave said, walking back over to John. "I need a break from this place. You want to go see if we can find anybody who might have seen anything?"

John nodded, although he really wasn't paying any attention to what Dave was saying. He was too distracted by what had happened at the convienance store. The way he had stared at that guy...he couldn't explain why he had done it. He had never been rendered speechless by a dude before and it was freaking him out. When he had seen him, it was like something had stirred inside of him that he hadn't even known existed. _No,_ he said to himself. _I'm not gay. I wasn't checking that guy out. I was just...I spaced out. Yeah. That's what I did. I spaced out._

"John? Earth to John. Quit thinking about Jeff and focus on the job. I need you here with me buddy."

John blinked and looked at Dave. "What? Who? Why?"

Dave shook his head, not bothering to hold back his chuckle. "Jeff was the guy you were drooling over at the store, but you can't focus on him right now. You need to help me do our job."

"I did not drool over Jeff," John said, following Dave to wherever the hell they were going. "I just spaced out."

Dave snorted. "Spaced out huh?"

"Yeah," John said, faltering when he saw that Dave didn't believe him for a second.

"Right." Dave was still chuckling. "Dude, it's okay. We both know Torrie's checked out other dudes so why shouldn't you get to do the same thing?"

"Because that's not my thing," John denied. "We've been over this a thousand times. I like girls. I've liked them for as long as I can remember."

"I know a lot of people who've said the exact same thing, but once they had cock, they never went back."

John sighed. "Must you be so crude?"

"Must you be a prude?"

"I'm not a prude!"

"Sure you're not...prude."

John groaned. Sometimes there was just no winning with Dave. "Can you focus please? We do have a job to do after all." He looked around and saw two girls spying on the crime scene from across the street. They were both pretty young, but they already had empty, hollow looks in their eyes. _Street kids for sure...maybe even hookers. They might have seen something._ "Excuse me!" he said, making his way over to them. "Can we speak to you for a second?"

The girls froze, obviously not expecting to be paid any attention to. Both of them looked like they were about to bolt, but John and Dave got over to them before they tried to do that. "Do you mind if we just ask you a couple of questions?"

The girls exchanged looks and whispered to each other. Dave leaned over so he could whisper to John. "The one on the right is Alicia and the one on the left is Rosa."

"How do you know that?" John whispered.

"They used to go to school with my oldest daughter," Dave answered.

Alicia and Rosa finished their own hushed conversation and lookd at John and Dave with guarded eyes. "What do you want to talk about?" Alicia asked.

Dave took a picture of Masters out of his pocket. "Did you happen to see this guy last night?"

The girls studied the picture carefully. "We didn't see him last night," Rosa admitted. "But we have seen him driving by a lot." She smirked. "He likes the twinks."

John frowned. "Twinks?"

"Yeah, twinks," Rosa confirmed.

John continued to frown, still not getting it. He had no idea what a twink was. Rosa and Alicia began to giggle when they realized that and Dave sighed in exapseration. "You remember Jeff? He would be considered a twink by most standards."

"Oh." John's eyes widened and he quickly looked away. The girls were still giggling and Dave was chuckling again. _Masters was interested in guys? Okay, I did not know that. Then again, I don't seem to know anything lately._

"Where did you typically see this man?" Dave asked the girls, trying to get them on track

Alicia shrugged. "Anywhere the twinks were. He was out prowling around down here at least a few times a week."

"But not last night?"

"Hell, he could have been out and about last night. We just didn't see him."

"Okay, thanks girls." Dave grabbed John and dragged him away. "You okay? You look like a tomato right now."

"Shut up," John ordered. "You...you...just shut up."

Dave grinned. "Hey, it's not my fault that one sighting of the infamous Jeff Hardy has you questioning your own sexuality. That's something you need to deal with on your own."

John kept his mouth shut. He wasn't questioning his own sexuality. He wasn't. He was just...he was having a weird day. Yes, that had to be it. This was going to be a really weird dream and he would wake up and be with Torrie and all would be fine in his world.

At least that's what he was going to tell himself until his river of denial ran dry. Then he didn't know what he was going to do.


	7. Get This Party Started

"People let's go!" James shouted irritably. He was pacing back and forth by the front door. He had been ready to go for a half hour now yet nobody else seemed to be wanting to get a move on it. "You've got five minutes to get your asses down here or I'm leaving without you!"

About twenty seconds later, Mark and Glenn came thundering down the stairs. "James, would you settle down?" Mark growled. "I'm already going to have a headache by the end of the night and I don't need you to start it any sooner."

Glenn rolled his eyes. "Good Lord Mark, it's just a party. It's not like it's going to kill you."

"It's a party at a club," Mark said stubbornly. "I don't like clubs. They're like five times more crowded than bars and the music is a shit load louder."

"Uh, Mark you do realize that you and I have been to plenty of con--"

"This is not like a concert James. When we go to concerts, we go to bands that I actually like. Nintey nine point nine percent of the time, the music they play at clubs is shit that I hate with a fiery passion that makes me want to kill everyone around me."

James and Glenn just shook their heads. Mark was such a fucking drama queen sometimes. It was actually kind of ridiculous given his age and badass status. "Mark come on, just stop," James pleaded. "I want to get fucking wasted and have a good time. Is that too much to ask?"

Mark sighed in defeat. "Yes but I'll shut up now."

"Good boy." James kissed Mark and patted him on the shoulder. "I love you."

"Love you too asshole."

"Wow, you two have such great terms of endearment for each other," Matt said with a chuckle. Now he and Cooper were joining the group by the door. Matt looked ready to party while Cooper looked like he rather go shoot himself in the face. That was really odd because he usually loved to go out and party. "What's wrong with you tonight?" James asked as Cooper leaned up against the wall.

Cooper frowned, trying to act like he had no idea what James was talking about. "Nothing. I'm fine."

"You don't look fine. You look really pissed off."

"You're crazy Dad. I look fine." Cooper turned away from him. "CONNOR! JEFF! GET YOUR ASSES MOVING! WE'RE READY TO GO!"

James looked back at Mark, who just shrugged. They had yet to talk to Cooper about the whole Ziggler thing and while James had almost been planning on bringing it up casually tonight, he didn't think that was a good idea anymore. Not if a fight was going to be avoided. _Damn kid can just get so fucking moody sometimes..._

Connor and Jeff came running down the stairs so they didn't get left behind. Jeff was wearing a red fishnet shirt, black leather pants and a pair of heeled boots....James was positive that those only belonged on chicks, but Jeff was the twink, so that was close enough. Jeff had dyed half of his hair purple and the other half blue and it was in pigtails. He was also wearing his "come fuck me" look, which was always a good thing. As for Connor, he looked like he usually did except for one thing. "Connor, did you dump a whole bunch of glitter all over you?" James asked.

Connor nodded. "Yup! I sparkle now Daddy! I likes to sparkle."

Glenn and Matt laughed while Mark and Cooper rolled their eyes. James decided that if Connor wanted to sparkle, then that was his business. There were worst things that he could want to do after all. "Let's just go already," James said. "We've been wasting enough time as it is."

"Daddy, can I ride on the motorcycle with you?" Connor asked as they all exited the house.

James shook his head. "I'm not sure if that's a good idea. You don't usually behave that well when I let you ride with me."

Connor put his hands together, pouted his lips and began jumping up and down. "I will Daddy! I'll be good, I promise! Please please please please please--"

"Okay okay!" James shouted, knowing full well that Connor could keep that up night if he had to. "You can ride with me. But if you try anything funny or dangerous, so help me God--"

"You're an atheiest," Glenn pointed out.

"That's not the point!" James snapped. He hated it when people interrupted him. It was just plain rude. "The point is, if Connor doesn't behave, there will be hell to pay."

"Yay!" Connor cheered. He got on James's bike and bounced around impatiently. "Let's go let's go let's go!"

James rolled his eyes but he got going. He sat down in front of Connor while Mark and Jeff got on Mark's bike and the others piled into Glenn's car. James led the way to the VIP Lounge, and he was surprised by the fact that Connor actually did behave himself. Sure he shouted "Whee!" so loudly that James temporarily lost the hearing in his right ear, but considering the fact that Connor liked to try to make people wreck with surprise purple nurples, the "Whee!" thing was him behaving. Of course, it probably helped that the VIP Lounge was a less than ten minute drive from their house. If it had been any longer, the situation might have been totally different.

"Oh God just kill me now," Mark muttered under his breath after they had parked and started going into the club.

James sighed and put his arm around Mark's shoulders. "Would you just chill Marky? It's not going to be that bad. And if it is, you can just punish me for it later when we get home."

Mark smirked. "You know that I'm going to be holding you to that promise, right?"

James grinned and nipped at Mark's lips. "I wouldn't have it any other way big boy."

Cooper made a loud gagging noise that was drowned out by the loud music blaring from the speaker as they entered the club. James could feel Mark's irritation intensifying with each and every second that passed, which was not a good thing at all. So as the others all went off in seperate directions, he pretty much dragged Mark over to the bar by force. "Come on, it's not going to be that bad," he said as he pulled out a couple of stools for them to sit down on. "We'll drink, we'll make fun of everyone around us, we--oh for fuck's sake, don't you ever go away?"

Tom grinned as he handed Mark a drink. "Hello to you too asshole." He took a seat next to Mark. "Montel told me to give you that as soon as I saw you. I think this is his way of covering his own ass in case you get too cranky and start hitting people."

James gave Tom a nasty look. "If Montel told you to go jump off a cliff, would you do it? Because that would do everyone a huge favor."

"No, that would do you a huge favor," Tom corrected. "And I have absolutely no interest in doing that."

Mark downed the drink Tom gave him as fast as possible. "I need another one," he announced. "Actually make it four or five. If I remember you two bickering all night then I'm going to be very upset."

"We do not bicker," James denied. "We argue. Saying we bicker makes us sound like an old married couple, and if I was married to him, I would shoot myself in the face."

"Yeah," Tom agreed. "I would shoot him in the face too if we were married."

"Okay, you know what asshole? I'm going to fucking stab you in the--"

"Hey now, let's behave," Kelly scolded as she came over and started pouring them drinks. "This is supposed to be a celebration of Dave and Oscar's love, not a platform for you two to kill each other."

James tilted his head to the side and stared at the blonde woman with genuine confusion. "What are you doing serving drinks? I thought you were a stripper!"

Mark choked on the drink Kelly had just poured him and Tom rolled his eyes. "What?" James said defenisvely. He didn't understand their reactions. "What did I say?"

Kelly shook her head. "I was a waitress before this. I've never been a stripper and I never plan to be one." She went to pout them a round of backup drinks, but then decided to just hand over a couple bottles of whiskey instead. She looked a little bit frazzled at the moment, and if James actually gave a shit, he would have almost felt bad about the stripper accusation.

"First night on the job?" Mark asked, sensing what had her nerves frayed.

She nodded. "Montel hired me a couple days ago."

"Lovely," James said. He grabbed his drink and raised it up in the air. "Here's to ya Barbie Girl." He drank it in one gulp, slamming the glass down on as he swallowed. An idea came into his head and it was so good that he had to blurt it out immediately. "Let's have a drinking contest."

Mark smirked. "The last time we had one of those, we both almost got alcohol poisoning."

"I know that Marky. That's why we need to redeem ourselves by actually getting alcohol poisoning this time."

Mark actually chuckled at that. "Hell, I'm game. What about you Tom?"

Tom nodded. "Yeah sure, why not? Me beating James might actually shut him up."

James raised his eyebrows. "If you think that you're going to beat me at drinking, you're fucking on crack. I will drink you under the table and then stomp on your face while you're down there."

Kelly leaned over towards Mark. "Do they do this all the time?"

Mark nodded. "More often than I can stand."

Tom and James ignored them in favor of glaring at each other. "I say we raise the stakes on this Lawson," Tom said. "If I beat you here tonight, you're going to be my bitch for the next month. And if you beat me, I'm your bitch for the next month."

"And in this case, bitch means what exactly?"

"Whatever the winner wants it to mean."

James grinned. That sounded like fun. "Alright then. I'm in."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Cooper managed to lose the others and escape to the bathroom. "Fuck," he muttered as he shut and locked the door behind him. "Fucking assholes need to learn to get out of the way." He looked over to the corner and saw JTG and Shad talking amongst themselves. "You guys got it?" he asked.

They both looked up at him as soon as he spoke. Neither of them looked very happy at the moment. "Dude, you are going to get us in so much trouble if your dad finds out we're doing this," JTG said. "And despite what you may think, there are some people we don't want to ever cross. And he is one of those people."

Cooper rolled his eyes. "He's not going to find out you idiot. All you got to do is keep your damn mouth shut and everything will be just fine." He took a wad of cash out of his pocket. "Now do you have the stuff or not?"

Shad sighed and took a small bag out of his pocket. He and Cooper made the exchange at the same time. "Thanks guys," Cooper said. "I appreciate it."

"Yeah, well, if James finds out somehow and comes breaking in our door, we're telling him you made us do it," Shad said.

Cooper rolled his eyes as the two of them made their exit. Those two were worrying way too much. He opened up the baggie and looked inside of it. There was enough cocaine in there to last him a couple of parties. He knew James wouldn't be happy about this if he found out. Cooper had gone through some issues with this shit in the past, which was why he was so determined to keep it a secret. If James found out, he would freak and things would get ugly. _He's not going to find out,_ Cooper told himself. _I won't let that happen. This shit is just going to be for fun and it's not going to lead to something serious like it did last time._ That's what he wanted to believe anyway, and damn it, he was sticking to that belief.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Yo guys, congratulations," Matt said. He and Glenn had found Eve and now they were talking to Dave and Oscar. "Seriously, four years...hell, my last couple of realtionships haven't even lasted six months, so I'm impressed.

Dave grinned. "Thanks Matt. It means a lot that you guys came. I'm surprised you got Mark out of the house though. He usually hates these kinds of things."

"Yeah well, we didn't really care about what he thought," Glenn said. "Besides, he's dealing with it fine. He's--" he looked over at the bar "getting drunk as fuck with James and Tom. Oh crap, that might actually turn into a bad thing."

"Might?" Eve repeated in disbelief. "There's no might about it. That's a disaster waiting to happen."

"You think we should intervene?" Oscar asked.

"Nah," Matt said with a shake of his head. "It's not like they'll stop just cuz we tell them to."

"Good point," Oscar admitted. He wrapped his arms around Dave, who bent down and gave him a kiss. That made Eve go "aw!" and her aw made Glenn roll his eyes. "Good lord woman, you've seen them kiss a thousand times. How is it still freaking adorable?"

"Because they're perfect together!" Eve snapped. "You would understand that if you ever took the time to have a relationship."

"I've had plenty of relationships," Glenn said defenisvely.

"Stalking someone doesn't count as a relationship," Matt said with a smirk.

Glenn flipped him off. "I have never stalked anyone in my life Hardy. Whoever told you did is a paranoid freak."

"Speaking of freaks, is that Connor swinging around from the rafters up there?" Dave asked.

Matt looked up and groaned. That was Connor up there. "Glenn--"

"I'll get him," Glenn said with a defeated sigh. He began moving people out of the way so he could go find a way to get Connor down safely.

"Poor Glenn," Eve muttered. "It has to suck to be on Connor detail all the time."

Matt shrugged. "Someone's got to do it though and I don't want it to be me." He found it a little strange that Cooper was nowhere to be seen. He usually was the one taking responsibility of Connor in places like this. _He's been acting kind of funny lately. All distant and shit...I wonder what the hell is up with him._

"Hey Matt, is Jeff around here somewhere?" Dave asked suddenly. He had a mischievious gleam in his eyes.

"He's probably dancing right now," Matt said, a little confused by the look in Dave's eyes. "I'll probably have to go save him from being raped in a little bit.

"Oh don't worry about that," Dave said reassuringly. "We'll make sure he's okay."

Oscar began protesting as Dave dragged him off. "Dave come on, you're just going to make things weird and awkward..."

"Yeah and that's going to be half the fun!"

Matt looked at Eve. "Do you think they're off to drag Jeff on into a threesome?"

Eve shrugged. "If they are, you should just let them do it. Jeff might get a chance to top Rey which would be good for his self esteem." She looked around and spotted something that made her smile. "We're both getting checked out."

"What? By who?" Matt started to spin around to see who Eve was talking about but she quickly stopped him.

"Don't look so eager!" she scolded. "It makes you look desperate."

Matt rolled his eyes and turned around more casually. It didn't take him long to see who Eve was talking about. Standing against the wall was Maria and Evan. They had obviously realized that they had just been caught staring, and they were feeling embarrassed about it. "Okay, so what?" Matt said, trying hard to keep his voice casual.

"So what?" Eve repeated in disbelief. "Matt, let me make this simple for you: Maria is a lesbian and Evan's totally gay. I'm a lesbian and you're totally gay. This is absolutely perfect!" She grabbed his hand. "Come on, let's go over there and talk to them."

"Eve, if we go over there and talk to them, they might just clam the hell up and freak," Matt tried to tell her. Sure the only time he ever really talked to Evan one on one was their encounter at Tiffany's shelter and he hadn't ever actually spoken to Maria, but he could tell that they were both shy as hell.

Eve rolled her eyes. "Matt, we're at a _party_. They have to start having a good time and we're going to help them do that. Now would you move your ass before I kick you in the balls and drag you by the hair?"

Matt's eye twitched. "You're one violent bitch, you know that?"

She just grinned. "I know. I'm proud of it."

"Of course you are. You have no shame."

"Shame is for wusses. Now let's _go_!"

So Matt started following her. It wasn't like she was going to give him any other choice. _This is going to be a very interesting conversation._

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Jeff moved to the beat of the music, getting completely lost in it. He had been dancing with Connor, but then Connor started babbling about Tarzan and Jane and took off. He had almost gone after the crazy bastard, but the allure of dancing had been too much for him to resist. So he had stayed out by himself, dancing with random people and getting "accidentally" groped on more than one occasion. He didn't mind it though. He liked the attention. Hell, he fucking thrived on it. It was like a drug to him.

For a little while, it almost sounded like someone was yelling his name. He figured it was just his imagination though, so he ignored it and kept dancing. But when someone grabbed his wrist and gave his arm a good yank, he opened his eyes and let out a yelp. "What the--Oscar! You hurted me!"

"Sorry," Oscar replied. "I didn't mean to, but I was practically screaming your name and you didn't even hear me."

"Oh. Whoops, my bad." Jeff rubbed his arm. "So what did you want?"

"Dave and I want to talk to you," Oscar replied. "But we need you to come over to our table."

"Is this about a threesome?" Jeff asked immediately. "Because there doesn't need to be a discussion about that. I'll just say yes right here right now."

Oscar rolled his eyes. "This isn't about a threesome Jeff. Now would you come on? If Dave has to come out here and get you, he's going to throw you over his shoulder and carry you off the dance floor."

Jeff giggled. He was almost tempted to keep resisting and find out if Dave would actually do that, but he decided to be nice and just follow Oscar to the table. On the way, several catcalls were made at him, and he shamelessly hammed up for the people who made them until he saw Dave. But Dave wasn't the reason he stopped. No, it had more to do with the guy who was standing next to Dave.

Dave grinned. "John, this is Jeff Hardy. Jeff, this is John Cena. I figured you guys didn't have much of a chance to talk the other day at the convience store so I thought I could help you out." And with that, he grabbed Oscar and made a quick exit before John and Jeff could even open their mouths.

_Oh God, what is wrong with me?_ Jeff asked as he found himself turning red against his will. He could not understand this reaction. He tried to look at John to see what was so special about him, but when he did, John just happened to make eye contact with him. They stared at each other for about a minute before looking away, each of them trying to pretend that this wasn't awkward. _I've got to do something,_ Jeff thought. _I've got to make this less awkward...but what the hell can I do?_

He looked around, desperate to find anything that would help him in his quest to get rid of the awkwardnes. In his rush, he grabbed a bowl that was sitting on the table Dave and Oscar had just abandoned. "Want any?" he asked.

John looked into the bowl and his face began to look like a tomato. "Uh..."

"What?" Jeff said. He looked into the bowl and groaned. Someone had taken the liberty of putting a whole bunch of condoms into that bowl. _Wow, and I thought this could not get anymore awkward..._


	8. Everywhere I Go

_Los Angeles, California_

Trish Stratus let out a sigh as she, her girlfriend Amy Dumas, her step-sister Ashley Massaro and Ashley's friend Candice Michelle stepped outside. They had just watched a Hollywood Undead concert and now they were trying to remember where they had parked Ashley's car. "I think I stood too close to the speakers," Trish commented as they walked away from the auditorium. "I'm really having trouble hearing out of my left ear right now."

"Aw, poor baby," Amy cooed. She wrapped her arms around Trish and kissed the blonde. "I would have switched you spots with you if you had asked."

"I know. But don't worry. My ear will go back to normal in awhile," Trish assured her.

"You sure?"

"I'm sure." Soft kisses were exchanged between the couple before a loud giggle interrupted them. Trish rolled her eyes so she could glare at Candice. "Do you mind?"

Candice shook her head. "Don't get nasty with me Patricia. I'm just giggling at those guys over there."

"Don't call me that," Trish snapped as she looked to see who Candice was talking about. It didn't take her long to find the guys. They were openly staring at her and Amy and one had even got his cell phone out to take a picture. "Yeah, go ahead and take that picture," she said loudly. "Make sure it's a good one because it's going to get that fucking camera shoved up your fucking ass!"

Amy and Ashley grabbed her and dragged her away while the men "Oooh'd" and told her to settle down. "Yes, let's pick a fight with a bunch of guys," Ashley said sarcastically. "Because that's the smart thing to do."

Trish shook her head. "Come on Ash, I could have taken them! They're just a bunch of douchebags that think they're tougher than they are. I guarantee you that I could have kicked any of their asses."

"We know you could have babe," Amy said. She smoothed down Trish's long hair. "But you just barely got out of assault charges a week ago and I don't think you beating the shit out of more people would be the best thing to do right now."

Trish knew Amy was right. Three weeks ago, she had gotten into an ugly confrontation with two girls named Madison Rayne and Lacey Von Erich at a night club. They had talked a lot of shit and then they had tried to mess with Amy. That was a no no in Trish's book and she had beaten the snot out of both of them for it. They had pressed charges against her and gotten her arrested (Amy and Ashley were barely able to bail Trish out of jail after the arrest). Trish's step-dad (and Ashley's father) had hired some good attorneys for her and everything had gotten settled so quickly that it had made her head spin. But despite dodging a bullet with Madison and Lacey, she knew she shouldn't press her luck too soon.

The four girls walked in silence for awhile. The auditorium they had just left didn't have its own parking lot, so anyone who went to see a concert there had to park in the residential neighborhoods nearby. And since Hollywood Undead had such a big turnout (and Candice took so fucking long to get ready) they ended up having to park a really long ways away. "You know, I saw some really cute guys in there," Candice commented.

Amy rolled her eyes. "Yeah, what's your point?"

"There's no point," Candice said way too innocently. "It was just an observation." She gave Ashley a meaningful look.

Ashley groaned. "Candice please, don't start this again. I just broke up with Paul two weeks ago."

"Yeah, so what?" Candice replied. "Paul was a loser who chose to leave you for his best friend. You need to find a new guy to help you forget about him."

Trish shook her head. Candice didn't get it. Ashley had been with Paul London for three and a half years. They had been engaged at one point. But Paul had realized he was having feelings for his best friend Brian Kendrick and those feelings ended up being stronger than the feelings had for Ashley. "Just back off," Trish told Candice. "It's barely been a month. She doesn't need another guy already."

"How would you know?" Candice asked. "You've never been with one."

"So? I don't need to have ever been with a guy to know that someone isn't ready for a new one."

"Bu--"

"Guys, please don't fight," Ashley pleaded. They were now cutting through an empty park because it was a faster way to get to the car. "Come on, let's just go eat and--" She stopped in mid-sentence. "Do you guys hear something?"

Trish stopped and listened closely. At first she didn't hear anything, but just as she was about to say that, she heard what Ashley heard. Someone was giggling nearby. "Who the hell is that?" she asked.

Amy tugged on her arm. "Look over there," she whispered. "Do you see that?"

Trish looked and she saw what Amy saw. There was a freaky looking goth girl over by the swings and she was starting to make their way over to them. "This is the part we should get the hell out of here," Trish muttered. There was something about the girl coming towards them that gave her the creeps.

"Aw, why are you all looking at me like that?" the girl asked. "Don't you want to play with me? Daffney has been a very lonely girl lately."

"Uh....who's Daffney?" Ashley asked before Trish could shush her.

The girl giggled some more. "I'm Daffney." She stepped forward some more, swaying her hips and licking her black lips (the girl had really overdone the goth make-up). She stopped walking and her facial expression changed to one of anger. "I know you," she growled at Candice.

Candice blinked. "What?"

"I know you," Daffney repeated. "You and your little friends used to make fun of me. Called me a freak..." She shook her head. "I never got the chance to tell you how much I hated you." Suddenly she grinned evilly. "Until now."

The hairs on the back of Trish's neck prickled and she turned around just in time to see a guy hitting Candice on the back of her head with his fist. Ashley screamed and got hit too. "Get em Stevie!" Daffney shrieked. "Get the bitches!"

"Oh nice, you can't even do your own fighting!" Trish growled. She hated bitches like that.

Stevie took a swing at her, but she ducked it and punched him in his balls. As he doubled over in pain, she kicked him right in the face. Daffney shrieked and attempted to lunge at Trish, but Amy cut her off with a spear. Just because Trish did most of the fighting didn't mean that Amy was helpless. Amy was just better at controlling her temper.

"Raven!" Daffney yelled as she tried to kick Amy off her. "RAVEN!"

_Who the fuck is---WHAT THE FUCK?_ Somebody grabbed Trish from behind and put a wet rag over her mouth. Whatever was on the rag stunk really bad and it made it hard for her to breathe. Amy looked back and that mistake cost her big time. Looking back allowed Daffney to pick up a rock and hit her on the side of the head with it. Trish attempted to scream and fight her way free so she could check on her girlfriend, but she couldn't. She was getting weaker and weaker by the second, and eventually she passed out.

XXXXXXXXX

_Meanwhile, back in Detroit..._

"Meanie! You're a meanie Glenn! Let go of me right now!"

Glenn sighed. He had gotten Connor down from the rafters, but Connor was not happy with him at all now. "You know you're not supposed to climb around on the rafters like that," he reminded the younger man. "You could fall and get hurt."

"Nuh uh!" Connor protested. That was his favorite argument to use. "Now put me down!"

"No."

"YOU UNHAND ME RIGHT NOW YOU INFIDEL! YOU HEAR ME? LET ME GO YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!"

Glenn ignored him and began carrying him over to the bar. On the way, he ran into Cooper. "There you are!" he said. "Where have you been?"

"Around," Cooper replied cryptically. "What's up with Connor?"

"Glenn's being mean!" Connor whined. "Tell him to let me go!"

Glenn shook his head. "I found your demonic little brother climbing up on the rafters. He's mad at me because I won't let him go back up there."

Cooper rolled his eyes before grabbing Connor and yanking him off of Glenn. "You should go check on Mark and Dad. I'll keep the little brat here in line."

"I'm not a brat!" Connor growled. "You--" He was cut off by Cooper smashing their lips together. Connor tried to shove him off but Cooper grabbed his wrists and twisted them until his knees buckled. A little startled by the force Cooper was using, Glenn shook his head and went over to where Mark, James and Tom were. They were all pounding back shots left and right, and Kelly was looking at the three of them in concern. "How drunk are they?" he asked.

"Uh...really really drunk?" Kelly guessed. "Tom and James are having a contest and Mark's just drinking right along with them. I was going to tell them they should stop but I'm kind of afraid to."

Glenn nodded. "That's good. You should be afraid around them. They're freaks."

"Hey! Shuts your faces up baldy!" James ordered. "You donts gesta speaks."

"Yeah," Tom agreed. "So can it."

"Hey! You shush too."

"No. I don't has to. You shush it."

"You!"

"You!"

"You!"

"I'm gonna punch ya in the face asshole," Tom growled.

"Do it and die shithead!" James growled back. He picked up an empty tequila bottle and waved it around in what probably would have been a more threatening manner if he wasn't as drunk as he was.

"Knock it off both of you!" Mark ordered. He shoved them both so hard that they fell off their stools. "I'm trying to beat both of you so you'll both be my bitches!"

Glenn and Kelly looked at each other. "That was the terms of the bet," Kelly explained. "The loser has to be the winner's bitch for a month...at least I think that's what they said."

Glenn shook his head. "I don't think they're going to remember who won. Not unless we tell them." He sighed. This night just kept getting more and more interesting.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Matt leaned up against the wall and smiled at Evan. The younger man really was just way too cute for his own good. "So are you having fun?" he asked.

Evan nodded. "Yeah. Are you?"

"Uh huh. Montel knows how to throw good parties for people." He looked over at Eve and Maria. The two of them were giggling and looking really comfortable with each other.

"So uh...are you and she....together?" Evan asked suddenly.

Matt blinked in surprise before figuring out that Evan had misinterpreted the look he had given Eve. "What? Oh no. No way. She's a proud lesbian and I'm one fucked up gay dude."

Evan cracked a smile. "You don't look fucked up to me."

"Yeah, that's just because all the damage is mental and emotional." Matt shoved his hands into his pocket. "So what drew you here? Do you just like parties or are you buddies with Dave and Oscar?"

"I work with Oscar and Shane at the comic book store actually," Evan replied. "They just hired me a couple of weeks ago. I like it so much better than flipping burgers."

"Yeah, there's a lot of stuff better than that," Matt replied. He had flipped plenty of burgers when he had been a teenager. It was not a fun way to earn money.

"How um...how did you meet Dave and Oscar?" Evan asked. He looked like he was becoming more and more at ease, but the bit of red that was in his face just refused to disappear. Not that Matt minded that of course. He actually thought it was adorable.

"I met them at a party once," Matt answered. "It was back when me and Jeff first moved here."

"Where did you guys move here from?"

"North Carolina." Matt intended to just keep it at that. He was not going to get into the whole him and Jeff moving around because they had no place to go. That was just a way too long and depressing story to go into at the moment.

Luckily, Evan didn't get another chance to ask him any more questions. Eve and Maria came running over to them and grabbed their hands. "Come on, let's dance," Eve said. It wasn't a suggestion; it was a direct order.

Matt looked at Evan. "You want to go?"

Evan nodded. "Yeah sure."

"Great." Matt yanked his hand free from Eve's grip so he could grab on to Evan. Eve smirked so he pretended to glare at her. "What are you staring at Miss Torres?"

"Nothing Mr. Hardy," she replied. She wrapped her arm around Maria's waist. "Nothing at all."

"Good. Now get moving woman!"

Eve's eyes narrowed.

Matt gulped. "Please?"

"Good boy." Eve turned and took Maria out with her to the dance floor.

"You see, this is why you need to stay on the gay train," Matt whispered to Evan. "Women are bossy control freaks. They must be avoided at all costs."

Evan nodded. "So cock good, vagina scary," he summarized.

"Exactly. You think you can remember that?"

"Yeah, I'll manage it somehow."

"Good boy." _Although I wouldn't mind it if you were naughty...oh great, now I've just given myself a boner. This is going to be fun to dance with._

XXXXXXXXXXXX

John took a big drink of his beer. After the bowl of condoms incident, he and Jeff had sat down to have some drinks. Neither of them had really said a whole lot. John wanted to help poor Jeff out and strike up a conversation, but he honestly was at a complete loss for words at the moment. He didn't know what to do or think about this whole situation. He had never been attracted to a guy before and now he felt like he was about to make an even bigger jackass out of himself if he opened his mouth.

"So uh....you're a cop?" Jeff said casually.

"Yup," John confirmed with a nod.

"Is it any fun?"

"Not really." John took another drink of his beer. "What about you? What do you do?"

Jeff shrugged. "Not much right now. I just hang around mostly...if I need money I just paint something and sell it."

"You're an artist?"

"When I feel like it. I used to paint a whole lot when I was younger, but not so much now."

"Why not?"

"Inspiration got taken away from me." Jeff played with his beer bottle a little bit. "Life hit me with a whole bunch of nut shots and ruined my perspective on things."

John raised his eyebrows. "Nut shots?"

"Uh huh." Jeff shook his head, obviously not wanting to get into detail about what those nut shots were. "So does Dave throw you into situations like this often?"

John shook his head. "No. This is the first time he's actually done it."

"Well why did he choose to do it now?"

"Probably because he's convinced my girlfriend is cheating on me." The words were out of John's mouth before he could stop them. He didn't know why he said that. He had no proof that Torrie had done such a thing, and even if he did, this wasn't something he needed to be discussing with Jeff.

"Girlfriend?" Jeff tried to sound casual, but the disappointment could clearly be heard in his voice.

"Yeah." John got his wallet out of his pocket and took out a picture of him and Torrie. "She was my brother's friend's cousin. We met at a barbeque and started going out not long after that. But lately it just seems like we've hit a real wall in our relationship." He put the picture and his wallet away. He didn't know why he was telling Jeff this. He just felt compelled to do it for some reason.

"Do you think that she's cheating on you?" Jeff asked innocently.

John shrugged. "Honestly, I don't know what to think anymore. I don't want her to be cheating on me, but I'm not even sure if I'll be surprised if it turns out she is." He looked down at the table. He felt like shit for saying that, but it was the truth at this point.

Jeff stared at him for a moment before getting up to his feet. "Dance with me."

John blinked in surprise. "What?"

"Dance with me. Forget about Torrie for a little bit and dance with me." Jeff grabbed John by the hand and pulled him up to his feet. "This is a party. We should be having fun and not moping about cheating girlfriends."

John went along with Jeff, his eyes glancing down at Jeff's ass as they walked. He tried to stop himself from doing that, but he couldn't. Jeff's ass was a magnet for his eyes. "I'm not much of a dancer," he warned the smaller man. "In fact, I flat out suck."

Jeff grinned. "I'll be the judge of that buddy."

Licking his lips, John kept walking until Jeff stopped and began moving to the music. Feeling awkward as hell, John put his hands on Jeff's hips. He was immediately rewarded for his actions by Jeff grinding his ass up against his groin. _Holy shit,_ he thought to himself as Jeff continued to dance. _I feel like a damn stripper pole...why am I finding that so hot all of a sudden?_

Jeff continued to move to the beat, seemingly oblivious to how hot and bothered John was getting. People began to stare at them and a few of them began letting out a few catcalls. Normally John hated being the center of attention like this, but he couldn't form the words to tell Jeff that he should tone it down. The way Jeff was moving up against him...it was driving him completely insane.

_Oh. Whooa  
My heart is beating fast but my hands are moving slow  
Oh. Whooa  
Feels so right you just cant say no_

Late night gonna hit the town  
Gonna take you out  
Gonna make you whooa  
Whooaa. Midnight romeo  
Show me yours and I'll show you mine  
Gonna make you sweat  
Gonna feel you head to toe  
You know,  
I'm your midnight romeo

"Jeff?" John said suddenly.

"Yeah?" Jeff turned around so that they were now face to face.

"I uh....I'm not...I..." John lost track of what he had been trying to say when he saw Jeff's tongue dark out and play with his lip ring. Going purely on his instincts, he pulled Jeff as closed to him as possible and kissed him roughly. Jeff kissed him back eagerly, wrapping his arms around his neck and grinding their groins together. The music and the people around them faded away as they kept on kissing. John's hands began roaming Jeff's body, squeezing his ass at one point and making him moan.

_What are you doing?_ the rational part of John's brain asked._ You're in a relationship! With a girl!_ But that didn't stop him from continuing to kiss Jeff. In fact, it wasn't until his lungs started to burn that he broke the kiss. "Holy shit," he whispered.

Jeff grinned. "I've been wanting that to happen since the first time I saw you."

John took a deep breath and was going back in for another kiss when gunshots rang out and caused sheer and total panic. John immediately shielded Jeff's body with his while looking for a place for them take cover at. People were screaming and freaking out, which added to all the confusion.

Then, just as suddenly as they started, the gunshots ended. John looked around to see if he saw anyone with a gun, but all he managed to see were the people that had ended up on the wrong end of the bullets. "Son of a bitch," he muttered. He took out his phone so he could call for an ambulance.

Jeff sighed. "Well, I guess it's not a Murder City party unless someone gets killed."

"Yeah," John agreed bitterly. _Damn assholes can't give it a rest for one fucking night..._


	9. Check Your Head

Regal looked around his hotel room. He, Kozlov and Jackson were staying at the nicest hotel in the city...which really wasn't saying a whole lot. Personally, Regal thought the hotel wasn't even good enough to be the dirtiest and nastiest pub over in England, but what he thought really didn't matter. The only reason they were there was to get a little rest. Once they got that rest, they were going to go hunting for Paul and Katie's killer. He was positive that the three of them could catch culprit (or culprits). Their methods had never failed before and he didn't intend for them to fail now.

Having already gotten all the sleep that he was going to get, Regal sat down on the bed and began watching the news. The top story was about a shooting at some club called the VIP Lounge. Apparently nine people had been killed, three were hanging on by a thread and eight had been injured (including the owner of the club himself, Montel Vontavious Porter...which Regal immediately thought was a ridiculous name). Two suspects had been arrested for the shooting and the police were still investigating into the possibility that there were even more shooters involved. Even though it was nice to see that the police weren't totally incompetant and even though he wanted to find Paul and Katie's killer himself, it upset him that the morons that were the cops were able to get suspects for this shooting but not for his slain cousins.

A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts. He sighed and got up to answer it. The knock had been way too soft to have come from either Kozlov or Jackson. _Who in the bloody hell could possibly be at my door? It better not be that annoying maid again. We're going to have a serious problem if it is._

As it turned out, it wasn't the annoying maid. In fact, it was a brunette woman that he had never seen before in his life. "Can I help you?" he asked as politely as he could. Even though he despised pretty much every American purely on principle, he still had to be polite. At least for a little bit anyway.

"Lord Regal?" the woman said in a very professional voice.

"Yes?" he said, getting a tad bit impatient.

"I'm Lt. McMahon, head of the Homicide Unit of the Detroit Police Department," she replied. "I heard that you had arrived and I thought that I would come to greet you myself."

Regal raised his eyebrows. On the plane ride over, he had done a little research and knew that Stephanie McMahon was the daughter of Comissioner Vince McMahon, and she had complete control over the homicide department (unless Vince stepped up and overruled her of course). "That's very kind of you. It really is. But it really wasn't necessary. I'm here to sort out Paul and Katie's affairs and then I'm taking their remains back to England so they can get a proper burial."

"Well as long at that is all you're here for--"

"What exactly does that mean Miss McMahon?"

Stephanie shook her head. "Lord Regal, I've spoken to other members of your family, and they told me that you like to take matters like this into your own hands. There are also several of your collegues that have called to warn me about that very same thing."

"Did they now?"

"Yes they did."

"Well Lieutenant, before you go making any harsh judgments against me, I have to tell you that neither my family nor my collgeues know me as well as they like to think they do."

Stephanie shrugged. "How well they do or do not know you is really none of my concern. What is my concern is that I already have one vigilante group running around causing mayham and I do not need another person trying to take the law into their own hands."

_There's another vigilante group huh? Hmmm....interesting._ Regal kept that thought to himself and just smiled as pleasantly as he could. "I assure you, I won't do anything to compromise your investigation." Sure he was blantantly lying, but he really didn't care.

"I hope not." She began taking a few steps back. "Have a nice day Lord Regal."

"You do the same," he said. He shut the door and rolled his eyes. "Bloody bitch," he muttered. He didn't give a damn what she said. He was going to do what he damn well pleased and there was nothing she could do or say to stop him.

XXXXXXX

Stephanie got into her car and pulled out her cell phone. The conversation with Regal had gone pretty much the way she had expected it to. Regal had acted all nice and polite, but she could tell by his eyes that he hadn't meant a word of it. In fact, she was pretty sure he had wanted to tell her to go fuck herself. But that really didn't matter to her. What mattered to her was that she had enough shit to deal with and the last thing she needed was for someone else to throw themselves into the mix and fuck things up even more.

She dialed her father's phone number and waited for him to answer. Unfortunately, she only got an answering machine. "Dad, it's me," she said, starting her car and casting a glance back at the hotel. "I talked to Regal. He says he's only here to sort out Paul and Katie's affairs, but I don't believe him. Lord Hayes told me about Regal's track record and I'm pretty sure he's up to something right now. I'm going to go ahead and tell someone to follow him just in case. I don't want this turning into an international incident." She glanced at her watch. "I'm heading back to the station now. Call me when you get this or just meet me there if you can, okay? Bye." She hung up the phone and was just about to start driving when her phone rang. "Hello?" she said as she answered it.

"Lieutenant?" It was Detective Alex Shelley. "I think you might want to get back to the station. Chris and I might have a lead on McIntyre's death."

"You do? That's great." Even though all four of the cops that had just been recently murdered had all been on Internal Affairs list to be investigated for questionable behavior (that was I.A.'s word for it...Stephanie knew though that it was just code for all of them being dirty sons of bitches), they had still been a part of the force and it was a matter she wanted to keep within her team. "Can I just ask what--"

"We've got a man here named Ron Killings. According to the people we talked to, McIntyre was harassing Killings and making life very difficult for him."

"Do you think he knows who might have killed him?" _Or did he kill McIntyre himself? Is he a part of the MCS himself, or is McIntyre's death seperate from the other three?_

"I don't know. That's what we're going to find out. I just thought you would like to be here for the questioning."

"You thought right. Sit tight. I'll be back as fast as I can." Stephanie hung up and began driving...completely unaware that she was currently being watched at the moment."

XXXXXXXX

James woke up feeling like someone was beating his brain with a hammer. He groaned and rubbed his eyes, hating the light that was shining on him with a fiery passion. "Damn it to mother fucking hell!" he cursed as he opened his eyes. He was in his room, laying on his bed with...no way...no fucking way...if this actually happened, he was not only going to kill the asshole currently sleeping next to him, but he was going to off himself as well. Even if he never remembered what could have possibly happened between the two of them, he wouldn't be able to live with himself at the mere thought of fucking that shit head.

"GET THE FUCK UP!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. He rolled off the bed and then overturned it, waking Tom up in a very violent way.

"What the fuck?" Tom yelled. He rolled out from underneath the bed and glared at James. "What the hell was that for?"

"That's for me waking up in bed with you naked!" James yelled back. He grabbed his knife, fully prepared to use it. "What the fuck were you thinking?"

"Me? The last thing I remember is people getting shot and then you smashing a fucking bottle over my head! So whatever happened between us is something YOU did!" Tom got to his feet and grabbed Mark's knife, which had been sitting on the desk nearby.

"I wouldn't touch you with a forty foot pole!" James insisted.

"Well it might be too late for that now," Tom replied. "I might just have to shoot you in the fucking face!"

"Not if I stab you first you prick!"

The door opened at that moment and Mark came in, just about dying from laughter. "You two...you...God you two are so stupid..." Mark said in between gasps for breath.

James glared at his long time lover. "What the FUCK is so funny about this?"

"Nothing happened between you two!" Mark said, finally getting some resemblance of control over himself again. "James, after the shooting, you hit Tom over the head with a bottle and then got up on the bar and fell off it about two seconds later, knocking your dumbass self unconscious."

"So how did we wake up in bed naked together?" Tom asked. He was searching around for his clothes. "That's the part that's confusing the fuck out of me."

Mark grinned sheepishly. "Well...since I was the last one standing in our little drinking game--"

"You weren't playing!" James objected. "It was just between me and Tom!"

"I so was playing," Mark insisted. "You just didn't know it because I didn't announce it!"

"Well you can't do that!"

"Well I did!"

"Hey! I woke up in a bed naked with a Lawson!" Tom reminded them. "Can we deal with my inner pain here for a moment?"

Mark rolled his eyes. "Anyway, as I was saying, since I was the last one standing, I decided to have some fun with you guys and put you in the same bed naked together."

"So we didn't fuck?" Tom asked.

"Nope. Not as far as I know."

"Oh thank God," James said in relief.

"But you're now both officially my bitch."

James glared at Mark. "Yeah, like that's going to happen."

"Oh it will," Mark assured him. "I'll make sure of it."

James kept up his glaring and Mark glared right back at him. Tom quickly found his clothes and put them on. "So uh...who was shooting people last night?" he asked casually, casting a look towards the door in case he needed to bail the fuck out of there in a hurry.

Mark broke eye contact with James so he could address Tom's question. "Well right now the cops have two people in custody. There's our old friend Chavo--"

"Ick," James said, shaking his head. He didn't like Chavo. Chavo had been the nephew of their late friend Eddie and there was something about the guy that rubbed all of them the wrong way.

"And the cops also have some guy named Luke Gallows," Mark went on, ignoring James's comment. "We're going to go talk to Montel and see if he would know why those two would target his club."

"Maybe they were bored," James suggested.

"Or maybe they were hired to do it," Tom pointed out. "Montel's got a few enimies out there from his criminal days. Maybe someone was sending a message."

"Either way, we're going to find out the reason for sure," Mark said. He looked at James. "Once you get some pants on of course."

James folded his arms over his chest. "What if I don't want to get dressed?"

"I don't care what you want to do. You're putting pants on and that's final."

"You suck."

"No, you'll be the one sucking when I make you my bitch."

"Keep telling yourself that. It's nice for you to have a dream." James grabbed his pants and put them on. He was going to help deal with this shooting situation and then he was going to deal with Mark. _Bastard thinks he can worm his way into a drinking contest that he wasn't a part of...asshole. And then what he did with me and Tom...oh yeah, I'm kicking his ass. I am definitely kicking that ass until he forgets his own fucking name._

XXXXXXXXX

John sighed as he looked over the paperwork on his desk. There were witness statements he needed to look over and police reports that needed to be filled out. Unfortunately, he really couldn't concentrate on any of it. His mind was distracted and part of it was because of Jeff. Jeff had taken off almost immediately after the shooting. John hadn't even gotten a chance to say goodbye to him, which bothered him more than he wanted it to. _I have to put him behind me. I have to. I shouldn't have kissed him. Not only am I not gay, but I'm in a relationship with a woman. Granted it's a woman who might have cheated on me...no! Damn it, just because there's a chance she's cheating doesn't give me the okay to do it myself!_

He shook his head. He couldn't keep thinking about this. Thinking about Jeff and Torrie was driving him crazy. He had kissed Jeff and he wanted to do it again. He felt kind of guilty about that, but he felt more guilty about the fact that he didn't feel as guilty about the kiss as he should have (if that made sense at all). And then, to top everything off, he and Torrie had gotten into a fight once she had gotten home from the concert.

_John was sitting on the chair, staring blankly at the television. It was about three in the morning now and he was still thinking about the kiss he had shared with Jeff. The kiss that could have led to even more kisses, if it had not been for people deciding to interrupt the party with guns. He sighed and closed his eyes. The kiss kept replaying over and over again in his head, driving him completely insane. Jeff had tasted so sweet...damn it, this had to be the booze talking. I can't be thinking like this._

_At that moment, he heard the front door open so he opened his eyes just to time to see Torrie stumbling in. "Hey John," she said, slurring her words more than a little bit. She shut the door behind him and made her way over to him. "What are you still doing up?"_

_"Can't sleep," he replied. Which was the truth. He had tried to go to sleep a little while ago, but all he could think about was his kss with Jeff._

_"Aw, poor baby," Torrie said. She plopped down on his lap and hugged him. _

_He winced. It wasn't because her bony ass had just dug itself into his leg (although that didn't feel very good. No, his problem was that she absolutely reeked of alcohol, cigarette smoke...and something that kind of smelled like cologne. "Uh...Tor?"_

_"Yeah?"_

_"Why do you smell like cologne?"_

_Torrie shook her head and giggled way too innocently. "Oh it's so silly John..I meant to put my perfume on but I was in a hurry and I grabbed your cologne instead." She kept giggling. "I didn't even realize it until Stacy smelled it."_

_John shook his head. "Tor, I don't wear that scent."_

_She frowned. "Sure you do."_

_"No I don't. I know my cologne and it does not smell like that."_

_"Well what are you saying?"_

_"I'm not saying anything. I'm just confused because I know that's sure as hell that's not my co--"_

"John? Earth to John? Come back to us dude."

John blinked, the memory effectively interrupted by Dave waving his hand in front of his face. "What?"

"Stephanie's back," Dave told him. "Alex and Sabin are about to start questioning Killings. You wanna watch?"

"Oh. Yeah sure." John shoved his paper work into the nearest drawer and got up to his feet. "Do you think Ron has anything to do with the Saints?"

"Hell no. I've known Ron for a couple years now and killing just isn't in his nature."

"Even if Drew attacked him?"

"Well okay, I could see a self defense thing. But nothing about Drew's death indicated that there was a struggle. Someone killed him quickly and he didn't get a chance to put up much of a fight."

"Right." John shoved his hands into his pockets. He was still distracted by the kiss he and Jeff had shared.

Dave smirked. "I know where your mind is dude. And I'm very proud of you."

John tried to look innocent. "I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Sure you don't." Dave shook his head. "You kissed Jeff and you liked it." He patted John on the back. "It's okay dude. Embrace the gay side of things. We're cool people."

Before John could say anything to that, they were in the presence of Stephanie, AJ and Gail, so their conversation had to stop. He sighed and looked into the room Sabin and Alex were questioning Ron in. "He say anything yet?"

Stephanie put her hand up to silence him. "Not yet. Now shush."

"Why do I feel like I'm on trial here?" Ron asked. He had his arms folded over his chest and he didn't appear to be very thrilled to be there.

"I don't know," Alex said with a shrug. "There's really no reason for you to feel that way."

"Yeah," Sabin assured him. "I mean, we're just here to question you about the allegations--"

"Allegations?" Ron shook his head. "Look, I'm gonna lay some truth on you people. Your boy McIntyre was a pain in my ass. He was an arrogant fool that did nothing but attempt to terrorize me and other people from my neighborhood. And now he's dead, and you've got me in here, acting all shocked that I don't trust any of you." He shook his head. "Come on guys. Why would I trust any of you? I don't know which one of y'all is dirty and which one of you is worth putting any sort of trust into you. How do I know this isn't some sort of set up?"

Dave leaned over towards John. "He's got a point," he whispered. "I mean, I know I'm on our side here, but let's get real here."

"What was that Dave?" Stephanie asked.

"I think you heard me," Dave said, not missing a beat. Despite Stephanie being above him on the food chain, he wasn't afraid to speak out even when she might not like it.

"We just want to know if you saw him the night he died," Alex said. He was pacing back and in front of the table that Ron was sitting at. "That's all."

"No, I did not see him," Ron denied. "I was at a party with at least sixty witnesses to testify that I was there. If Drew was there, I did not see him that night."

"Anyone else get the feeling he might be lying?" AJ asked.

"Maybe about the not seeing McIntyre part," Gail admitted. "But I don't think he killed him."

"Me neither," Dave said.

"He's still keeping something from us," Stephanie said unhappily. "I want to know what it is."

"Well if he's not under arrest, he can leave whenever he wants to," Dave pointed out.

John's mind began to drift away from the conversation. He couldn't help it. Jeff was too damn irresistible for him to stop thinking about. _I gotta find him,_ he decided. _I gotta find him and just...well I don't know what I'm going to do. I just got to see him again._


	10. When I Come Around

"I'm blue da da de da, da da da de da da dee dum ba da de de la la," Connor sang as he licked his sucker. He was tagging along with Mark and James today. The three of them were going to the hospital to check on Montel and talk to him about the shooting that had happened at the club last night. "I don't know the words to this song but I sing anyway because it annoys Daddy!"

James rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Connor please stop singing. Daddy does not feel well and doesn't want to hear it."

"Here in my car, I'm with Daddy and Marky and they're going to make sure to get me some ice cream," Connor sang, completely ignoring James. "In this car. Ooooh yeah in this car."

Mark chuckled. "You're pretty funny Connor."

"And you're pretty old Marky," Connor said wisely.

James roared with laughter when he saw the look on Mark's face. "That's what you get for encouraging him to torment me," he said smugly.

Connor giggled and bounced around in his seat. He wished that he could have brought Snoopy and Thor with him. They would have liked to come on this field trip. But apparently the hospital didn't allow dogs in it. Because of that, his poor doggies had been forced to stay home without him. "Daddy, we has to get Snoopoy and Thor doggy treats on the way home," he said. "I don't wants them to feel bad that they had to stay home."

James nodded. "Okay Connor, we'll make sure to do that."

"Like hell we will!" Mark grunted. He looked very disgruntled at the moment. "I got called old! I'm not stopping to get this kid or his dogs anything!"

Connor pouted. This was not good. He needed to make this up to Mark and he needed to do it fast. "Aw Marky, I sorry," he said. He unbuckled his seat belt and got up towards the front so he could start kissing Mark all over his face.

"Damn it Connor!" Mark said, trying to move his head out of the line of kisses. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

"I sorry," Connor said, continuing with his kissing attack. He made sure to wrap his arms around Mark so the older man could squirm away. "Sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry...."

"Okay okay!" Mark yelled. "I forgive you! Now get off of me!"

Connor stopped with the kissing, but he didn't get off of Mark completely. "We stop and get doggy treats on the way home?"

"Yes," Mark said unhappily. "If you leave me alone we will."

"Yay!" Connor let go of Mark and sat back down in his seat. The rest of the drive was surprisingly peaceful. Connor didn't feel the need to cause any kind of disturbance. But as they were heading into the hospital, he jumped on James's back and held on tightly. "Piggy back ride Daddy!" he yelled. "

James grunted and struggled not to stumble and fall. "Damn it Connor," he muttered. "A little fucking warning would have been nice."

Connor just rested his head on James's shoulder. He didn't like hospitals. They were bad. His mom had died in one a long time ago. It had made him, James and Cooper very sad. Sometimes it still made them sad. But they didn't talk about that. He didn't really understand why they didn't talk about it. He just didn't do it because Cooper and James got all snappy when he did.

Montel was in a room on the second floor of the hospital. When they got up there, they found the Bella twins up there, "nursing" him back to health. Connor scowled at them but didn't dare let go of James. He didn't like twins. They reminded him of the two little girls from The Shining. That movie had taught him that twins were evil and should be destryoed if possible.

"Yo," Montel said, nodding at them when they came in. "It's nice to see that you guys weren't hurt." He pointed to his side, which was where he had gotten hit. "Damn doctors don't want to let me out yet. They said they have to watch me in case there's any complications from the surgery."

"That sucks," Mark commented. He gave Brie and Nikki an even glare. It appeared that he was about to ask them to leave when James decided to take a less diplomatic approach to the whole thing.

"Out bitches!" James barked, pointing back at the door.

"Excuse me?" Brie and Nikki both said at the same time, glaring at James and creeping Connor the fuck out.

James raised his eyebrows. The twins bothered him for some reason and he wasn't afraid to let it show. "Did I stutter?" he asked.

Montel raised his hands up and waved them around. "No no no, I don't want that kind of shit in here." He looked at Brie and Nikki. "Girls, give us guys some alone time. We have some things to discuss."

The twins exchanged looks before saying "Fine" at the same time. They eached kissed Montel on the cheek and walked out of the room arm in arm. Connor waited until they were out the door before getting off of James and locking those bitches out. He also barricaded the door just in case they tried to break back in.

"You didn't have to be so rude you know," Montel informed James.

James rolled his eyes. "Come on Montel. Even you can do better than them. They're walking STD's! They hang off so many dicks they have to be incubating a whole mess of shit!"

Montel chose to ignore James's comment, which was really the only thing he could do. Very few people could argue with James and he was not one of those people. "Nikki told me the cops were taking Ron in to talk about McIntyre."

Mark nodded. "Cooper's going down near that area to make sure Ron gets out of there okay. Ron's a good guy; he won't fuck us over." He folded his arms over his chest. "So far the cops have arrested two dudes named Curt Hawkins and Bob Holly for the shooting at the club. And they're looking for this other guy named Mike Knox."

Montel sighed. "Shit. I was hoping that weasel wouldn't send his flunkies to stir this shit up."

"Who's the weasel?" Connor asked. "I like weasels. They go pop!"

"Abraham Washington," Montel said with a disgusted look on his face. "He and I got beef going way back to the day."

"Wait a second," James said with a frown. "I think I've heard of him. Didn't he have a talk show that got canceled after one episode because it sucked so badly?"

Montel nodded. "Yup, that's him. Anyway, I don't actually know what he could want, but I know the three dudes you mentioned have worked for him before and the guy that shot me was an ugly mother fucker named Snitsky, and he's worked for him too. So I say start with him, because he's the only guy that has a problem with me that's too much of a pussy to try to take me on himself.

James smirked. "You know, if this guy even got his stupid talk show on the air, that means I--"

"No," Mark said immediately. "You are not doing a talk show."

James glared at him. "And you get to decide that because?"

"Because I'm me," Mark replied. "And if you've got a problem with that, you can go to hell."

"How about you go to hell instead?" James replied. "How does that sound?"

"Don't get like that James. It makes you sound like a baby."

"It does not!" James said defesively. He was glaring daggers at Mark at this point. "And if I want to have my own talk show, then I'm going to fucking get one!"

Connor sighed and began to look for something to play with. This arguement was going to take awhile.

......

Cooper leaned back against the side of the coffee shop. He was across the street from the police station and he was waiting for Ron to get out. He wasn't sure how much longer that this was going to take, but he did hope that it wouldn't take long. Not only did it make him think that the cops were going to arrest Ron for what Mark and Matt had done (which was not something that he wanted), but he needed to go home and try to get some sleep. The coke he had snorted during the party was finally wearing off and he needed to either snort some more or crash. _No, don't start thinking like that,_ he scolded himself. _I'm going to control my habit this time. It's not going to control me._

For some reason, he didn't even believe what he had just told himself. Feeling anxious, he dug around in his pocket for his lighter and his cigarettes. He managed to find his lighter but not the cigarettes. "Mother fucker," he muttered as he remembered that he was actually out of cigarettes. "Fuck fuck fuck!"

"What's the matter Cooper? Did you lose something?"

Cooper spun around and found Randy Orton standing behind him. "When the hell did you get back in town Orton?" he asked.

"Recently," Randy replied. He kept his answer cryptic on purpose.

"Where are Ted and Cody?"

"Around."

"Are you going to give me anything but one word answers?"

"Maybe."

Cooper rolled his eyes. Randy was starting to piss him off, but that really wasn't anything new. Once upon a time, when the MCS had just started, Randy's father Bob Orton had been one of the three people in charge of the country's largest prostitution rings (the other two being Dusty Rhodes and Ted DiBiasie Sr.). The girls that had worked for them were doing so against their will, so the MCS had stepped in to break up the whole thing. By the time everything was said and done, the three bastards were dead and the girls were returned to their homes.

Now Randy didn't actually know that Cooper was part of the MCS. The two of them had met at a club a couple months after the whole thing had went down and for awhile, Cooper partied with him, Ted and Cody. Ted and Cody had been (and probably still were) completely absorbed in the soap opera that was their relationship, so he hadn't gotten close to them. He and Randy had once had a little thing going, but it hadn't worked out in the end. The sex was great, but Cooper had gotten fed up with Randy's hot and cold attitude. It had been absolutely infuriating back then and he had a feeling not much had changed since then.

Instead of going away, Randy walked closer and offered Cooper a cigarette. "I know you want it," Orton said with a shrug. "Don't deny it."

Cooper took it and stuck it in his mouth. He then took out his lighter and lit the damn thing. "Thanks," he grunted as he inhaled the smoke.

"You grew your hair out," Randy commented, keeping his voice at a completely neutral tone.

"I did."

"Looks good."

"Thanks." Cooper looked over at Randy. "I'd say something about your hair but you don't have it anymore."

Randy ran his hand over his shaved head. "Where's Connor?"

"With Dad. The two of them went somewhere with Mark."

"Do you two still not get along?"

"Is the sky still blue?" Cooper took another drag of the cigarette. "So seriously, what are you doing here? The last time I saw you, you gave me the impression that you were never coming back."

Randy just shrugged. If someone didn't know better, they would have thought that his face was completely emotionless. But since Cooper did know better, he was able to catch a gleam of something in Randy's eyes. Something was bothering his ex, but he didn't want to admit what it was. _Fuck, I'm not playing these guessing games with him. _

Lucky for him, he didn't have to. At that moment, Ron walked out of the jail and had spotted him. "I gotta go," he told Randy. "See ya around." He took off before Randy could even say a word.

"Man, I do not want to ever go back in there," Ron said with a shake of his head. "I thought that shit was never going to end."

"They didn't hassle you too much did they?" Cooper asked.

Ron nodded. "Yeah, but they're cops. What do you expect? It's what they do." He wrapped his arm around Cooper. "Now I don't know about you, but I'm starving. Let's go grab some lunch."

Cooper wasn't really hungry but he nodded along anyway. "Sounds good to me." As they started walking towards the nearest fast food place, Cooper looked at where he had left Randy from the corner of his eye. Randy was watching him and Ron, and he could tell that dear old Randy was not happy at the moment.

Fortunately for him though, he didn't give a rat's ass, so it was all good.

.....

"Evan? Can you go in the back and grab the new comics that came in earlier?"

Evan (who had been watching Shane play the Twilight Zone pinball machine they had gotten awhile back) nodded. "Sure." He patted Shane's shoulder. "Sorry Hurricane. You'll have to tap into your Hurri--Powers and be a cheerleader for yourself."

Shane shook his head. "Don't do it Evan! Don't let that vile Rey Mysterio pull you over to the dark side!"

Oscar rolled his eyes. "I'm not pulling him over to the dark side. I'm just having him do something that's going to take a few minutes."

"Yeah, and what if I lose my game by then? Do you want that on your conscience?"

Evan shook his head and walked to the back room. He could hear Oscar say something in Spanish, and while he didn't speak much Spanish at all, he had the feeling that Shane had just been called a name. And judging from the argument that was now breaking out, Shane seemed to feel the same way.

The back room of the store was more than a little chilly. Evan turned on the lights and shivered as he looked around for the new thing of comics that had just come in. _Damn, I almost need my jacket just to stand be around here....or maybe I should have someone with me to warm me up._ As soon as he thought that, his mind turned to Matt and that made his whole body flush. He had never felt this attracted to anyone before. Sure there had been guys at school he had thought were cute, but Matt put all of them to shame. He wasn't just cute; he was fucking sexy. It was just that simple.

The boxes holding the new comics were in a pile up against the wall not far from the door. Evan grabbed a cart that was in the room and put the boxes in there so he could take them all out at once. Some of the boxes felt like they weighed almost as much as he did, and when he started pushing the cart out of the room, it acted like it didn't want to go in the direction he was steering it. "Come on you fucking thing," he muttered. "Go where I tell you to damn it!"

Eventually he got it to go where he wanted it too (although he just about pulled a shit load of muscles in his back in the process). As he started taking last week's comics down from the display near the front of the store and started putting the new ones up, he saw something going on outside. That something was Zack Ryder (a kid to school with him) talking to a strange man while two other strange men stood there and acted ready to pounce on Ryder if he said the wrong thing. "Who are those guys?" Evan asked Oscar and Shane.

Oscar shook his head. "I have no idea." He was siting up straighter and watching the scene right outside the glass door carefully. There was a chance that he was trying to decide whether he needed to grab the gun he kept underneath the counter or not.

Shane stopped playing with the pinball machine and walked over towards Oscar so he could see what was going on. "What in the hell is Ryder wearing?" he asked. "That looks absolutely ridiculous."

Evan nodded in agreement. Zack was wearing a purple tank top, a purple head band and purple pants that had one of the legs cut off, exposing his spray on tanned leg and some sort of girly black jacket over all of it. The stupid and obnoxious outfit actually suited his loud and obnoxious nature, but it didn't stop him from looking like the complete and total tool he was. "I hope he doesn't come in here," he said. He couldn't stand Zack. Ryder had taken it upon himself to try to bully him every chance he got since had moved to Detroit from Long Island three years ago. He usually tried to ignore the jackass, but a couple of fights had broken out between them when Ryder refused to shut the hell up and go the fuck away.

After a couple of minutes, whatever conversation was going on outside ended. Ryder walked away from the store looking freaked and the three men he had talked to came in. "Can I help you?" Oscar asked.

"Yes you can actually," the smallest man out of the trio said. He was British and he seemed to be the leader of the group. "I'm looking for Evan Bourne and I was told that he works here. Is he in today?"

"And why exactly do you need to talk to him?"

"My cousins have gone missing and I've been led to believe that he was the last person to see them alive," the man replied. "Please, I just want a quick word with him."

Oscar and Shane exchanged looks. They seemed reluctant to give away the fact that Evan was standing right there. But Evan kind of felt bad for the guy and decided to speak up. "I'm Evan," he said, ignoring the looks that were sent his way by his bosses.

The British man looked at him. "Would you mind stepping outside with me so we can talk privately?"

"Um....okay."

"Excellent." The British man looked at his two friends. "Ezekial, Vladimir, please keep these fine gentlemen here company."

Ezekial and Vladimir both nodded, staring at Shane and Oscar like they were pieces of meat or something. Evan followed the one man outside, questioning how smart of a move this was on his part. "So um...who are your cousins?" he asked when they got outside and took a few steps away from the store.

"Paul and Katie Lea Burchill," the man replied. Anything that was remotely pleasant about him disappeared in about three seconds.

Evan stared at him. _He's that cop's cousin? Fuck, this might not be good._ "Um...I don't know if you've seen the news--"

"I know they're dead," the man replied curtly. "They were murdered, and apparently, you had a little run in with my dear cousins before they were killed. Now normally I'm not one to go on rumors, but judging from the look on your face, I think that little run in did happen."

Evan blinked. He didn't know what to say, so he decided to try to down play the situation. "It wasn't a--"

"Lad, I'm not interested in the details. What I'm interested in is the fact that people I've talked to have said that during the course of your conversation with my cousins, another man stuck his nose into the whole thing. The only problem is, nobody has been able to tell me who that man was. I was hoping you could tell me who he was."

_Where in the hell did he get this shit?_ Evan thought to himself. The people around here didn't talk to outsiders like this. Outsiders were like cops. They were avoided and ignored until it was detrmined whether they could be trusted or not. _Unless...he does have those big guys with them. They could have "persuaded" people into talking. That has to be it. There's no other way to explain it._ "It was just some guy," Evan said with a shrug. "I don't even know who he was." That was only kind of a lie. He did know who James was; he had met Lawson awhile back and James was not the kind of dude you forgot about any time soon. But it wasn't like he knew the guy all that well. James talked to him sometimes if they saw each other somewhere, but it never got too personal.

"Are you sure?" the man asked. "I wouldn't want you to forget anything." The way he said that last part actually sounded like a threat.

"I'm sure," Evan said quickly.

The man looked like he didn't believe them. But before he could say anything else, a car pulled up and Detectives Styles and Kim stuck their heads out of the window. "Is there a problem here Regal?" Styles asked.

Regal glared at them before shaking his head. "No. There's no problem here."

At that moment, Ezekial and Vladimir stepped out of the store. They started to go for the dectives' car but Regal motioned for them to follow him instead. Evan quickly went back inside the store and found Oscar and Shane waiting for him. "You guys okay?" he asked.

Oscar nodded. "We're fine. What about you?"

"I'm fine," Evan said. He looked back towards the window. "Those guys were kind of weird."

"Tell me about it," Shane muttered. He pulled out his cell phone. "How about we close this place up and go get some lunch? I'm starving."

Oscar looked at his watch. "Dave's supposed to pick me up here soon..."

"I didn't say we should go together," Shane replied with a grin. "You can go with Dave and I'll go with someone else while dear Evy here goes with Matt..."

"What?" Evan squeaked as his eyes widened. He couldn't believe what he had just heard.

Shane just laughed. "Just leave everything to me Evy. You'll have a hot lunch date as long as you trust me."

Evan turned a deep shade of red. _Oh God...this should be interesting..._


	11. Everything You Want

It took Amy a very long time to get her eyes open. It felt like there were weights tied on to her lashes, weighing her eyes down so much that they hurt. Her head was absolutely pounding, and the rest of her body felt stiff and cold. _Oh God,_ she thought as she took a deep breath and finally managed to get her eyes open. Her vision was blurry at first, but it cleared up after she blinked several times. _Fuck, I feel like I just got hit by a truck_. She was in a dark room, so she couldn't really see everything around her. "What the fuck..." she mumbled. She remembered leaving the concert with Trish, Ashley and Candice...Trish had almost gotten into a fight with a bunch of dudes...Candice had been her usual annoying self...then they had been attacked by in the park by three people. _Oh man, that one crazy bitch hit me on the side of the head with a rock. No wonder I feel like shit. Bitch probably gave me a concussion._

Amy blinked several more times before looking down and seeing that she was strapped down to a chair. She immediately tried to pull free, but the restraints on her were too tight. "Fuck," she said hoarsely, her stomach churning unpleasantly because of the pain in her head. This situation just kept getting worse and worse. "Trish?" she called out. "Trish?!"

"She's not in here...at least I don't think she is."

Amy looked around. She knew who was talking but she couldn't see her. "Candice?"

"Yeah, it's me." Candice's voice cracked. She sounded like she was near tears. "Amy where are we? What do those crazy people want from us?"

"I have no idea," Amy replied. She began trying to move her wrists from side to side, hoping that there was some way that she could slip them out of the leather restraints that were holding them down to the arms of the chair. Unfortunately, all that did was take start taking some of the skin right off of her wrists. "Ow," she said unhappily. "Damn it."

"Oh God, we're probably going to die," Candice said miserably. She wasn't even bothering to try to keep a hold of herself. "Oh god oh god oh god..."

"Would you shut up for two seconds?" Amy snapped. Candice's freaking out was making her start to panic too. "I need to think!"

Candice managaed to stifle her whining into somewhat quiet whimpers. It didn't really help that much though. Amy's head hurt too much for her to concentrate on trying to come up with some sort of plan. _I wish Trish was here. She always knows what to do._

Amy heard the door open and not two seconds later, a light came on in the room. It wasn't all that bright, but it was enough to make her head hurt more. "Oooh, you're awake!" Daffney said happily. "Goodie! I've been waiting for you two to wake up!"

Amy winced as her chair was spun around way too fast by the insane Goth chick. Every sudden movement made her feel like she was getting shot right in the temple. A bunch of white dots began dancing in front of her eyes, and it took her a couple of minutes to get her vision back. Once she did, she saw that Candice was strapped to an electric chair. _What the fuck?_ she thought as she tried to take a closer look at her own chair. As far as she could tell, she was just tied down to a regular one.

"You know Candice, I'm not surprised that you don't remember me," Daffney said. She sat down on Candice's lap and began running her nails through the shallow girl's long, brown locks. "People like you never remember people like me. You were the "perfect" little popular girl with a million friends that would have stabbed you in the back if they had the chance and you had a whole bunch of boys lining up around the block to get a taste of your herepes infected cunt."

"I--"

Daffney grabbed a hold of Candice's hair and pulled at it. "I WASN'T FINISHED TALKING YET BITCH! DON'T FUCKING INTERRUPT ME!"

Candice and Amy both flinched. Daffney giggled and let go of Candice's hair so she could gently rub her nails up and down the side of Candice's face. "You looked down at girls like me," she said, her voice quiet and sweet now. The change in her demeanor actually sent chills up Amy's spine. As bad as the yelling was, there was just something really frightening about Daffney acting like she was nice.

"You thought we were trash," Daffney went on, bitterness creeping into her voice. "You didn't like us because we weren't as rich as you were and we had to wear hand me down clothes while you got to wear whatever the fuck you wanted." Her long nails began inching their way up towards Candice's eyes. "And you really didn't like me because you thought I was a freak. Every day you and your little friends would make my life a living hell. Did you think I was going to forget just because you did? DID YOU?!" She scratched Candice's cheek violenly, leaving long, bloody scratches behind.

Candice began to cry. It wasn't her usual loud, obnoxious crying that she did to get attention; she sounded genuinely scared at the moment. "Please, I don't--"

Daffney shut her right up by slapping her across the face. "I don't want to hear your excuses!" she hissed. "Bitches like you are just programmed to be mean. No matter how many times someone makes you sorry, you'll never stop." She suddenly grinned evilly. "Not until you get the shock treatment anyway." She got off of Candice. "STEVIE! GET IN HERE NOW!"

_Ow, my eardrums,_ Amy thought unhappily. _And my head...the bitch has a voice like a fucking banshee._

The door opened again and this time a somewhat nerdy looking guy with long hair and a white doctor's coat on entered the room. "Dr. Stevie, at your--whoa!" The so called doctor tripped over his own feet and barely avoided falling flat on his face.

Daffney rolled her eyes. "Stevie! You idiot!"

Stevie regained his balance and shook his head. "I'm okay," he said like someone cared. "I'm good."

"Great." Daffney pointed to Candice. "Set up the treatment," she ordered. "I need to talk to Amy for a minute."

Amy immediately began trying to somehow scoot her chair back, but it was no use. Daffney was on her lap in an instant. "You are just so pretty," Daffney cooed happily. She wrapped her legs around Amy's waist and the chair while playing with her hair. "That barbie doll that was holding your hand when I found you in the park doesn't deserve a girl like you."

Amy scowled. She didn't like it when people compared Trish to a barbie doll. Trish was so much more than that. "I love her," she declared. "Now where is she?"

Daffney smirked. "Raven is talking to her. He needs something out of her...I don't know what though, so don't ask."

Amy gulped. She didn't like the sound of that. "I want to see her," she said. "Please..."

"I don't know..." Daffney drawled out. "That's an awfully big request...and I don't know if you've been a good enough girl to get that kind of privilege." She put her hands on either side of Amy's face. "Aw, don't be sad baby girl. Daffney's here to make you feel all better."

Before Amy realized what was happening, Daffney was kissing her right on the lips. She tried to yank her head free, but the insane woman just tightened her grip and shoved her tongue halfway down her throat. She choked on it, and the noise she made seemed to make Daffney think that she was liking the kiss.

"Daff? I think we're ready for treatment," Stevie said.

Daffney reluctantly broke the kiss so she could get up and walk over to the other side of the room. Amy watched her go, finally noticing the generator that was in the corner. The generator was connected to the chair Candice was sitting in, and Candice herself was begging and pleading to be left alone. "No way," Amy said, shaking her head despite the pain it caused her. Even though she didn't actually like Candice, she didn't feel like the snobby girl deserved what she thought Daffney was about to do.

"Yes way," Daffney said. "It's the only way she'll be cured."

Candice started sobbing harder. "Please don't. Please please please--"

Amy shut her eyes just as Daffney pulled the switch, which prevented her from seeing Candice get electrocuted. However, she couldn't block out the smell of Candice's burning flesh or her screams...or Daffney's shrieks of insane laughter. _Oh God, I need to get out of here. I need to get Trish and we need to get the fuck out of here right now.._

.....

"Wakey wakey Blondie. No more sleepies for you."

Trish coughed violently as the water that was dumped on her got into her nose and mouth. She leaned forward as much as the restraints would allow her to and started spitting it all out. As she gasped for breath, she looked up and saw a man kneeling down in front of her. "What...who--"

"Ssshhh," the man said, putting his finger on her lips to shush her up. "You don't need to speak. You just need to listen." He gently moved some of her hair back. "I'm looking for someone special, and I think you know how to get in contact with him. He was mine once...a pretty little thing that I had so much fun playing with. But then he ran away from me and I haven't seen him since. Now--"

"Raven!" someone yelled. "Where are you?"

"I'm busy Richards!" Raven yelled. He rolled his eyes before resuming his conversation with Trish. "Now I know you have at least some clue to where he could possibly be. You were his friend at one time after all. I used to watch you two together...you two were always so playful...if I hadn't known that both of you were gay, I would have thought you were dating."

Trish wasn't completely sure who Raven was talking about and she had no interest in finding out. All she wanted to do was get free, kick this guy's ass for kidnapping her, find Amy and the others, kick more ass if she had to and then get the fuck out of there. There was no helping this psychotic looking asshole in her current agenda.

Raven chuckled as he watched Trish tried to break free from the chair. "You're not going anywhere Blondie," he said, ruffling her hair and messing it all up.

"Wanna bet?" Trish replied. She didn't care how tightly she was tied down; she had the will to escape and she was going to make sure it happened, one way or another.

"Yeah, I wanna bet," Raven said before backhanding her across the face. Trish winced, feeling her lip bust open on impact. A small amount of blood entered her mouth, coating her tongue with it's warm, metallic taste. She spat back at him, wishing her hands were free so she could punch him instead. "I don't know who you're after, but I'm not helping you," she declared. "So just forget about that."

Raven just smirked. "Oh you will be helping me Trish. You want to know why?"

"Yeah. Why don't you tell me why?"

His smirk got bigger. My Abyss has your step-sister. My Daffney has your girlfriend. They're not too badly hurt...yet." He grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked on it. "But if you defy me...if you refuse to help me get what I want...they both die. And you will watch as it happens."

Trish scowled, but it was more for bravado than anything else. She could sense that this guy wasn't fucking around, which scared her more than she wanted to admit. "Who the fuck do you even want anyway?" she asked.

Raven smirked. "I want your dear friend Jeffrey Nero Hardy. You remember him, don't you?"

She did remember him...Jeff had practically been like the brother she never had at one point. But she hadn't spoken to him for awhile and it had been even longer since she had last seen him.

"Now please, make this easy for yourself bitch," Raven said, staring at her with his cold eyes. "Tell me where he is."

"I don't know," she replied honestly.

"But you know how to find out, don't you?"

She refused to answer him. She didn't want to sell Jeff out to this crazy asshole. He didn't deserve that.

Raven grinned and pulled a large hunting knife. "Oh Trish...so stubborn...let's see if I can fix that."

.....

Matt shifted around in his seat, trying to think of something cool to say. When Shane had called him and told him that he should meet Evan for lunch, he had gone along with it becasue he had liked the idea. Between taking care of Jeff for so long and then getting wrapped up in the whole Murder City Saints thing, he hadn't really ever had a chance to really get into the whole dating scene. But now that he was at Burger King and staring at Evan (who was sitting across from him) he had absolutely no idea what to say.

"So uh...what do you do for a living?" Evan asked. He seemed just as nervous as Matt was.

_I'm a vigilante who kills bad people._ "Right now I'm working at my friend's business," Matt answered, which technically wasn't a total lie. Legally he had a job with James's porn company; the others all did too. But none of them actually went to work. With James being the owner of the company, he was able to make up positions that didn't even have to exist and pay them for it. It was actually pretty cool.

"What's his business?"

Matt started to blush. "Um....oh boy, this is kind of embarrassing."

Evan leaned forward a little bit. "You can tell me. I won't laugh."

"Alright...I uh, I'm the head of the distribution department for Likansuk Porn."

Evan blinked several times before giggling. "What?"

"Yeah uh...it's not my finest hour, but it pays the bills," Matt said sheepishly. He ate a french fry while studying Evan closely. "At least you find it funny. Some people look at me like I'm the devil when I tell them what I do."

"They're just prudes," Evan said. He took a drink of milkshake. "My friend Shannon has some DVDs from Likansuck. He keeps trying to get me to watch all that stuff with him but uh...I'm not down for group porn watching. Watching porn by myself is one thing but uh...yeah, I'm afraid Shannon might rape me if we watch porn together." He was silent for a second. Then what he just said seemed to sink in and his eyes widened. "Did I really just say that out loud?"

"Yeah," Matt replied honestly. "But don't worry. I know people like that too. Them wanting to rape you while a porno is on in the background is just their way of telling you that they love you."

Evan laughed. "Shannon is definitely that way." He glanced down at his food before speaking again. "So uh...your friend Eve has been calling Maria pretty much nonstop. And I caught them making out the other day...like fifty times."

Matt smirked. "Eve isn't shy about that kind of stuff. If Maria goes along with it, they'll probably be having lots of sex in public places."

Evan turned bright red. "Are you serious?"

"Uh huh. So if you're not a fan of lesbian sex, you need to either gouge your eyes out and break your eardrums so you can't see or hear it, or you need to have lots of public sex of your own to counter it." Matt was speaking from personal experience. Those things were the only defense Eve's friends had from her public sexcapades.

"Oh," Evan said, his face turning even redder. "That's uh...wow."

_Damn, he's kind of innocent...it's so cute._ "You got any brothers or sisters?" Matt asked, deciding to get the conversation back on a more innocent path.

"Yeah. I've got a brother named Mike."

"Older or younger?"

"Younger. Back when we talked at the club, you said you had a brother named Jeff."

"Yeah, he's younger than me too."

"And you guys are from North Carolina?"

"Uh huh."

"Why did you move?"

Matt sighed and picked at his food a little bit. "I uh...I wanted to get Jeff away from the foster care system. We lost both our parents when we were young and we didn't have any relatives that would take us in, so we had to live with strangers. I didn't like it all and I know Jeff hated it too."

Evan nodded sympathetically. "Maria lives with foster parents too. She hates it." He didn't ask Matt what happened to his parents. Whether it was because he didn't think it was his business or he rightly sensed that Matt was uncomfortable with the topic, Matt didn't know. He was just grateful that he wasn't getting grilled about the matter.

"What does Jeff do?" Evan asked after several minutes of them just eating.

"He's an artist," Matt replied. "He sells paintings that he makes on the internet. He actually--" He was suddenly cut off by Cooper, who pretty much launched himself at him and nearly knocked him over. "Matt Matt Matt Matt Matt!" Cooper said loudly, shaking him a little bit. "What ya doin Matt?"

"I'm trying to have lunch," Matt replied. He looked at Cooper's eyes and saw that they didn't look normal. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Cooper said, talking much louder than usual. It was almost like he was trying too hard to sound normal. "In fact, I am fucking fantastic."

Ron sat down next to Evan and shook his head. He was eyeing Cooper carefully. "He's been like this ever since he came out of the bathroom at Taco Bell," he told Matt. "He went from being kind of broody to being one crazy ass white boy. It isn't natural."

Cooper waved his hands around wildly. "You shush," he ordered. "I'm natural. I'm all kinds of natural." He smashed his fist on to the table, making them all jump. "You know what we should do? We need to go to the arcade. I have not been to the arcade in forever and that is where we need to go."

Evan glanced at his watch. "I don't think I should...I'm supposed to go back to work after I'm done here."

Cooper smacked the table again. "No no no no no no! No! Forget work. I'll talk to your bosses for you and tell them that you need to come with us. You are here with us, which makes you a part of the arcade going group. Matt, tell him he's going."

Matt blinked, not sure what to say. "Uh..." Before he could finish, Cooper was taking off, muttering something incoherent under his breath.

"Fuck me," Ron muttered. He began chasing after the wired Lawson. "Cooper get back here now!"

Evan stared at Cooper's retreating form before looking back at Matt. "Wow, that was interesting."

Matt just nodded, kind of concerned about what the hell was going on with Cooper. He had never seen Cooper get like that before. Cooper wasn't the type to act like that. _Something is definitely not right._ "Yeah," he said absently. He looked at Evan. "Want me to drop you back off at the store?"

"Yeah," Evan said. "I'd appreciate that."

"Okay." They finished eating and then they left the restraunt. _Note to self: tell James about Cooper,_ Matt told himself. _He can deal with whatever that was Cooper just did...and also, I must get Evan's number. I need to set up another lunch that won't involve us getting interrupted._

....

Jeff tapped his pencil against his blank drawing pad impatiently. He wanted to draw something but he didn't know what. His inability to make that simple decision was driving him crazy, and in the process of being driven crazy, he was driving Tom and Glenn crazy as well.

"Would you quit doing that?" Tom finally asked. "You keeping moving around like you're gonna piss your pants right there on the couch and it makes me think that I need to go find a newspaper to smack you with."

Jeff pouted. "I can't figure out what I want to draw."

"Just draw me and quit fidgeting," Glenn said. He was trying to find something to watch on TV but he kept having to look over at Jeff. "You're driving me nuts over there."

That just made Jeff pout more. "I don't want to draw you," he said. "I've drawn you like a thousand times and you're not fun for me to do anymore."

Glenn sighed. "Ouch. Those were my feelings Jeff."

"Sorry." Jeff looked down at his drawing pad and sighed. The blank paper in front of him was mocking him, and he was tempted to toss it across the room just to punish it. Before he could do that though, he heard the front door open. Seconds later, Connor came running in, which caused Snoopy and Thor to jump up and start begging for attention. "Look what I have for you!" Connor said happily. "I gots you guys doggy treats!"

Glenn looked back at Mark and James as they came in. "You guys are done killing the shooters already?"

"No," Mark replied. "Connor put up a fuss on our way out of the hospital and decided that he didn't want to be our backup. So now we need one of you guys to do it."

Jeff shook his head. "Marky I don't want to. My tummy's upset." That was a lie, but he was willing to say anything to get out of work today. He just plain didn't feel like going and killing anyone today.

Mark sighed. "Fine." He looked at Glenn and Tom. "Which one of you is it going to be?"

Glenn and Tom exchanged looks. "Heads I go, tails you go," Glenn said.

"Fine," Tom agreed. He took a quarter out of his pocket and handed it to Mark. "Flip it Calaway."

James crossed his fingers. "No whammy no whammy no whammy no Tommy no Tommy no idiot asshole that needs to die--"

Mark flipped the coin and then quickly elbowed James in the ribs before catching the quater. "It's tails," he announced.

"Fuck!" James said unhappily.

Tom stood up and smirked. "Guess you're stuck with me after all Lawson."

James flipped him off while glaring at Mark. "You made it go on tails on purpose," he accused.

Mark looked at him in surprise. "I did not!" he denied. "Why would I do that?"

"Because you can't resist me," Tom said, purposefully trying to rile James up.

Jeff quickly got up and vacated the room as James attempted lunge at Tom. There was too much chaos in the house. He needed to go somewhere quieter. So he slipped on his shoes and walked out the front door. He walked down the street, heading to the park that was near their house. There was a tree that he liked to climb up in sometimes because it allowed him to watch everyone and not be seen. It made him feel like a spy...or a stalker. _But I would be a nice stalker,_ he told himself. _I wouldn't be a creepy one that shot the people I was watching. Well...maybe I would shoot them if they were bad. But that's a different story._

"Hey cutie, how much for a ride?"

Jeff turned around and saw a whole bunch of gang bangers gawking at him like he was some sort of prize. _Oh wonderful. This is now what i need right now._ "Not interested," he snapped as he kept walking.

"Oh come on," the ringleader of the idiots said. They were all starting to walk after him. "Don't act all prissy on us. We know what boys like you love."

Jeff scowled. He hated it when people said things like that to him. It made him want to start shooting people in the face. "Leave me alone," he growled.

"Why? You were out here hussling the other night? Do you think you're too good for that now just because the sun's up you stupid skank?"

Jeff whirled around and punched the guy right in the face. He didn't know who the hell this guy thought he was and he really didn't care. All he knew was that this guy was going to get it if he didn't shut his fucking mouth.

The punch stunned the guy for a moment, but he quickly shook it off. "You fucking little bitch," he said. "I--"

"You get back right now! You touch one hair on his head and I will have you all arrested."

Jeff turned around. His eyes widened as he saw that it was John that was coming to his rescue. _Wow...usually I hate getting saved but I think I can forgive him for this._ John looked too hot right now to stay mad at, even if he did hate having to be saved like a damsel in distress.

"Hey man, he hit me!" the gang leader said, glaring daggers at Jeff.

"All I saw was him defending himself," John replied. "Now get!"

The idiots looked like they wanted to put up a fight but they backed off. Jeff flipped them off as they went before looking at John. "Thanks," he said.

"No problem," John replied. "Fucking savages in this town." He shook his head and sighed. "So uh...how have you been?"

"Okay. How have you been?"

"Alright I guess." John suddenly looked kind of nervous. "Do you wanna uh...go somewhere and hang out?"

"You don't got to work?" Jeff asked, a little surprised.

"Not unless we get a major crisis," John replied.

"Oh." Jeff smiled. "Okay. I'm in."

John grinned. "You are?"

"Uh huh."

"Great...I have absolutely no idea where we should go."

Jeff giggled. At least John was man enough to admit something like that. He actually found that to be very charming. "It's okay. I think I know the perfect spot for us."


	12. Six Gun Quota

Randy had no idea why he had come back to Detroit. He really didn't. It wasn't like there was anything here for him anymore. His dad was dead, the rest of his family had left ages ago, and despite what he told Cooper about Cody and Ted being around, the truth was that they weren't. He had left them down in New Orleans and even though he had told them that he was coming back to Detroit, he really didn't expect them to come and join him. Lately the two of them had been more interested in doing their own thing and he was the odd one out. That had bothered him just a little bit, but he hadn't let that show. Instead he had just decided to go his own way.

He walked past his hotel and almost went in there. But after thinking about it for a moment, he decided against it. He was too restless to just sit in his hotel room. The restlessness had come pretty much immediately after his encounter with Cooper. It frustrated the hell out of him because it shouldn't have been a big deal. It was just a little encounter on the street. But with Cooper, things were never as simple as they should be. Their relationship--if it could have actually been called a relationship--had been a mess of sex, drugs, partying and fighting. And while he had loved the sex, Cooper was really hard to deal with sometimes. Cooper had the tendency to bottle a lot of shit inside of him, and when it got too much, he lashed out and would make other people's lives a living hell. Now Randy knew he lashed out at people too, but he lashed out pretty much immediately after he was angered, so his was never quite as powerful as Cooper's.

__

I should just leave,

Randy told himself. _This was a stupid idea. Coming back here was a big mistake. The whole reason I left was because I knew that the whole cycle Cooper and I used to go through would never stop unless we were apart completely._

For one moment, he almost listened to his brain. He almost turned around and went back to the hotel so he could get his stuff, check out of his room and get the fuck out of town. But as he started turning around, he spotted Cooper walking down the sidewalk from across the street. Cooper's friend Ron was chasing after him, trying to get him to stop. Somehow though, Cooper was just managing to avoid his grasp. "Damn it Cooper, would you fucking stop for a second?" Ron yelled. "I'm seriously two seconds away from hitting you!"

Cooper turned around and grinned. Randy could clearly tell that the oldest Lawson child was higher than a fucking kite. "Oh fuck," Randy muttered. This was not good. This was not good at all.

"You want to box Killings?" Cooper asked playfully. He began swinging wildly at Ron. "Come on then, let's box!"

Ron shook his head. "I'm not boxing with you Cooper. This isn't a game."

"Sure it is," Cooper said dismissively. "It's all a game Ronnie! It's one big fat fucking game!"

Randy sighed. His brain was telling him to just walk away from the train wreck in process. He didn't need to get involved in it. But despite what the logical part of his brain was telling him to do, he found himself walking across the street so he could go deal with Cooper. He tried to rationalize it with the very true fact that a high Cooper was not something any one person could deal with on their own. Cooper's drug of choice was usually cocaine, but he tended to either get it laced with other drugs or he laced it himself after he bought it. Either way though, he got really out of control when he snorted those little concoctions.

"Orton!" Cooper shouted as he saw Randy coming. He grinned and happily pulled Randy into a big hug. "Hey man, what's up?"

"I can't breathe," Randy wheezed. Cooper's hug was practically suffocating him.

Cooper let go of Randy, completely oblivious that he had nearly cracked two of Orton's ribs with that bear hug. "Orton! Hit me!"

"No," Randy said immediately. "I'm not going to hit you."

"Why not?"

"Because you're high and have no idea what the fuck you're asking me to do."

Cooper looked insulted. "I'm not high!" he denied vehemently. "Why does everyone think that?" He smacked himself across the face as hard as he could. His head rocked to the side because of the blow, but it was obvious that he didn't feel it at all. He was that far gone at the moment.

Randy shook his head. The last he had hear, Cooper was supposed to be off the drugs. _Shit, this relapse sure as hell isn't pretty._ "Come on Lawson, don't bullshit me. I know you took something. Just tell me what you did and I'll help you."

Cooper laughed. "You'll help me?" He shook his head. "No no no no. I don't need help. You do." He grabbed Randy by the shirt and pulled him so close that their crotches were touching. "You're the mental one here, not me."

Randy was about to object to that statement, but he was distracted by Cooper grinding his groin against his. He groaned, his knees buckling more than a little bit. "Damn it Cooper," he said, trying to regain control of the situation. "Stop that."

Cooper responded to that by keeping up what he was doing.

"Okay, that's enough," Ron said loudly, He was now going to try to regain control of Cooper since Randy was failing at it. He grabbed Cooper by the shoulder and tried to pull him back. That set Cooper off and he violently pushed Randy away and elbowed Ron in the stomach before taking off. Randy stumbled back but quickly managed to regain his footing. "Damn it," he muttered as he watched Cooper run. He grabbed Ron by the arm and started dragging him along as he went after his ex-boyfriend. _What the fuck am I doing? Why am I getting involved in this? Shit, maybe Cooper's right. Maybe I am the one with a problem._

…

James was compulsively chewing on a pen cap that he had found in the glove box of Mark's truck. He, Mark and Tom were on their way to the house that Abraham Washington and his goons were supposed to be staying at and he was really wishing that they were already there. Tom had been humming almost the entire ride now and James was sure the mother fucker was doing it just to irritate the fuck out of him.

Mark looked over at him. "You do know that you're going to be giving me a new pen, don't you Lawson?"

"Why would I do that?" James asked.

"Because you're chewing that one all up to shit."

"I'm actually just chewing the cap." James took the cap off and waved the rest of the pen around. "See? This is just fine."

Mark gave him an irritated look. "It's got your slobber all over it."

"So? You've swallowed my cum before Marky; once you did that, you lost all rights to be grossed out from just my spit," James stated. "Plus, it wipes off really easily." He wiped the upper part of the pen off on his jeans. "See?" The sound of chuckling from his other side caught his attention, and he glared at the source of it. "What the fuck are you laughing about?"

"Nothing," Tom said with a shake of his head. He went back to humming and staring out the window.

"Would you stop that?" James finally snapped. "That's really fucking annoying."

Tom just started to hum louder.

Mark groaned. "Oh God help me," he muttered.

"Hey! I said knock it off!" James yelled as he smacked Tom.

Tom glared at James before smacking him back. "It's a free country Lawson. I can hum if I want too."

"No you can't. You are not in America anymore buddy; you're in the United States of James Lawson. I am your ruler and if I tell you to stop humming, you--"

"Shut up James," Mark ordered. "Tom, quit provoking him." He pointed to a house that was about a half a block away. "You see that house over there? That's the place we need to get to. Now Tom, I want you to cover the back while James and I get the front. You think you can handle that?"

Tom nodded. "I can handle it."

James snorted, which earned him a backhand across the face from Mark. "Hey! What the fuck was that for?"

Mark just glared at him before he and Tom got out of the truck. James seethed privately for a second before getting out too. He followed Mark while watching Tom cut through someone's yard so he could get to the back of the house they were targeting quicker. "You were taking his side again," he pouted, trying to resist the urge he had that involved him kicking Mark right in the back of his skull. "Why do you always take his side? You're _my_ boyfriend, not his."

"I wasn't _taking_ his side," Mark said defensively. "I don't take sides when it comes to you two idiots. I just try to sit back and resist the urge to kill the both of you."

James folded his arms over his chest. "You should just take my side. Life would be so much easier if you did that."

Mark glared at him. "Would you knock it off Lawson? You're really starting to piss me off."

James glared back at him. He didn't understand why Mark couldn't just agree with him about this whole Tom thing. Tom was the most annoying son of a bitch he knew and it frustrated him that nobody agreed with him on that. When Mark showed no signs of backing down or changing sides, James pushed past him and stormed up the porch steps. "Lawson would you stop that?" Mark hissed. "You're making too much noise you idiot!"

James really didn't give a rat's ass at the moment. He was too pissed off to. Stopping only to put on his leather gloves, he took out his hunting knife and kicked the front door open. Discretion was the last thing on his mind. He stormed into the house and began looking around. He wanted a fight and he wanted one right away.

Luckily, it didn't take him too long to find the fight that he was looking for. When he burst into the kitchen, he scared the shit out of a small, annoying looking man that he recognized to be Abraham Washington. _Now I remember why I turned off his show after five seconds. This guy just LOOKS like he sucks._

"What the hell?" Abraham yelled. He immediately jumped behind the two very large men next to him. One guy looked like a deranged Grizzly Adams with his long, scraggly looking brown beard and the other had teeth so yellow that it just about made James throw up in his mouth a little bit. "Knox! Snitsky! Get him!"

"What are they, your dogs?" James asked with a shake of his head. He booted Knox in the face as hard as he could and easily grabbed Snisky's wrist and twisted his arm behind his back. He saw Tom coming into the room and wasted no time tossing Snitsky on to his mortal enemy. He laughed as Snitsky collided with Tom and they both fell to the floor, but his laughter was cut off by Knox grabbing him from behind and capturing him in a bear hug. He growled and smashed the back of his head into Knox's face as hard as he could. Knox's grip loosened just enough for him to get out of it, and he turned around and speared the hairy man down to the ground. He could hear Abraham and Tom yelling and Mark growling, but the sounds all seemed muffled to him. All he could really focus on was punching Knox in the face as hard and as much as he could, busting the other guy's nose open and letting the blood cover his fist…

The sound of a gunshot snapped James right out of his rage. He looked up and saw that there was a bullet right between Snistky's eyes. "Fuck," he muttered. He looked at Tom, who was massaging his throat. "Did he do any damage to you at all?"

Tom just glared at him for a second before raising his gun and pointing it at him. He immediately abandoned Knox and started going at Tom, not giving a shit about that fucking gun. He wasn't scared of the stupid thing.

"Children!" Mark growled. "That's enough! We've still got work to do." He shook Abraham around, making the smaller man squeal like a pig.

"Now hang on a second!" Abraham said quickly, trying to wiggle out of Mark's grip. "What do you guys want? Because I can get it for you. I can--"

Mark snapped his neck before he could say more. "Shut up you son of a bitch," he growled as he threw the body down on the ground.

James grinned and looked back at Knox, who was just starting to get up to his feet. He gripped his hunting knife tightly in his hand before driving it deep into Knox's stomach. Once it was in there, he drove the blade upwards, splitting Knox upwards and causing some of his guts to fall out.

"That is fucking disgusting," Tom declared.

Mark shook his head. "Was that totally necessary Lawson?"

James nodded. "Yup. It totally was." He yanked his knife back out and let Knox's body fall to the ground. He stared at it for a second before looking at Mark. "I feel better now," he stated. He kissed his lover on the lips and flipped Tom off before walking away. _I love this job. I really do._****

….

Me: ~glares at James and Cooper~ You two hijacked this entire chapter! Are you aware of that? I actually meant to get to the John and Jeff's little date--

James: Oh who cares about them? I want to kill Tom! You should let me do it…my birthday is coming up after all.

Me: Your birthday is next fucking month! And it's not just about John and Jeff. I still have to deal with Raven and his gang of psychos, Trish, Regal and his man servants, Connor--

Cooper: So just do it next chapter. It's not like--

James: You! You've been doing drugs again? What did I tell you about that?

Cooper: ~pales and runs away~

James: ~chases after him~

**Me: ~sighs~ I'll just do it all next chapter...fucking asshole Lawsons.**


	13. Feelin' Way Too Damn Good

"I haven't climbed a tree in years," John said as he settled himself next to Jeff on the branch. When the younger man had told him that he knew a place that they could go, he hadn't expected them to end up in a tree at the nearest park.

"Well you did a very good job," Jeff said. He had set his drawing things down next to him and was now swinging his legs back and forth. "I was very impressed."

"Well I aim to please," John said with a bit of a grin.

Jeff giggled. "That's a good thing to know."

John's grin got bigger. Despite the awkwardness that had existed earlier, he was starting to get a lot more comfortable with Jeff. "So is that a new drawing pad or do you have some pictures in it."

"I've got pictures in it."

"Can I see them?"

Jeff raised his eyebrows in surprise. "You really want to?" he asked in surprise.

John nodded. "Yeah. As long as that's okay with you."

"Alright. As long as your sure." Jeff handed over the drawing pad. "Before I got hassled by those assholes, I was planning on coming here and drawing. But now I'm not really in the mood to do it anymore."

"Have they ever given you shit before?" John asked before.

Jeff shrugged. "I don't think those guys in particular have. At least not that I can remember. But people around here always like to hassle guys like me. They like to think that I'm an easy target."

John found himself growling softly. He didn't like the thought of people messing with Jeff. Jeff sighed and shook his head when he growled. "Don't worry about it man. I can take care of myself."

That didn't really make John feel better but he didn't want to insult Jeff so he kept his mouth shut and began looking at Jeff's drawings. It only took him a few seconds to realize that Jeff possessed quite a talent. "Damn," he said under his breath. "These are really good."

"Thanks," Jeff said. When John got to one picture in particular, he reached over and stopped him from turning the page too soon. "That's my brother Matt."

"It is?" John studied the picture closely. "He doesn't really look a whole lot like you."

"I know. He's all dark and broody like Batman, which works for him." Jeff wiped some of his hair out of his face. "I wouldn't want to be Batman though. I would much rather be the Joker."

"Why? He's the bad guy."

"Yeah but he has awesome face paint. Plus I've always felt like it would be much more fun to be a comic book villain than a comic book hero. The whole hero thing is just too much pressure."

"I've never thought of it that way before," John said. He continued flipping through the drawings, seeing unique looking faces, other people he didn't know and the most adorable beagle he had ever seen in his life.

Jeff tilted his head to the side and looked at him closely. "You know who you could be?"

"Who?"

"Superman." Jeff actually got up to his feet and stretched his arms out. "It's a bird, it's a plane--"

"Jeff sit down," John ordered. He could just picture Jeff falling out of the tree and cracking his skull on the ground and it was not a pretty mental image.

"--it's SuperCena!" Jeff shouted gleefully. "He can leap tall buildings in a single bound, he's faster than a speeding bullet and he fights for truth, justice and the American way!" He let out a whoop before jumping out of the tree and landing feet first on the ground. "Ta da!" he sang before taking a bow. "I'm here till Tuesday!"

John shook his head in amazement. "Wow, that was just…you are a very hyper man."

Jeff laughed. "I know," he said proudly. "Now put the drawing pad down and come swing with me."

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah! It's not like there's any kids around here." He ran over to swings and plopped down on the first one he could get to. "Now come on!" he yelled. "Get your butt over here before I pull you out of that tree!"

John was almost tempted to stay up in the tree just to see if Jeff would do just that but in the end he decided to climb down and go over to the younger man. "These things used to give me motion sickness when I was a kid," he said, eyeing the swings like they were the devil.

"They did?" Jeff said with a frown.

John nodded. "Them and long car rides."

"Oh. That had to suck."

"Yeah. I think the whole swing thing had to do with my older brother Dan putting me in a tire swing one time and spinning me around until I puked all over myself."

Jeff made a disgusted face. "Yuck. Did you get him back for that?"

"Yeah."

"What did you do?"

"Let's just say he got a surprise in his Mountain Dew the next time he left it unattended.

Jeff shook his head. "Okay, you can just leave it at that. I'm pretty sure I don't want to know the rest."

"Yeah, I'm sure you don't either."

"You and your brother were nasty. I hope you know that."

"Yeah well, that's what happens when there's five boys in the house."

"Five? Holy shit your parents were busy!"

Now it was John's turn to make a face. "Wow…that was the last thing I wanted to think about."

Jeff nodded. "Everyone feels that way. So did you grow up here in Detroit?"

John shook his head. "Nope. I grew up in West Newbury."

"Where's that at?"

"Massachusetts. It's about thirty some miles north of Boston. What about you?"

"Cameron, North Carolina."

"Never heard of it."

"Nobody has. I swear, we have less than two hundred people living there." Jeff got off the swing and put his hands in his pockets. "Your parents still live back in Massachusetts?"

"Yeah. Your parents still live in North Carolina?"

A dark look flashed over Jeff's face. "My parents are dead."

"Oh." Now John felt like shit for asking that question. "I'm sorry."

"Why? You didn't kill them?" It was obvious that they needed to get off the subject as fast as possible and John started racking his brain for something to talk about. "You want to go over to the monkey bars?" he finally asked, hoping they would serve as a distraction.

Jeff grinned. "Maybe later. I have something else in mind right now."

"You do?"

"Yup." He leaned forward like he was going to kiss John but then he pulled a swerve by poking John in the chest instead. "Tag! You're it!"

John blinked in surprise as Jeff took off running. "Hey! Get back here!" He took off running after Jeff, not even caring that people were walking by and staring at them as they went. He was totally focused on getting his hands on Jeff.

"You'll never catch me!" Jeff yelled back at him he went into the tube slide and started climbing up it.

John shook his head as he began climbing up the playground equipment to get to the top of that slide. Just as he got there, Jeff was just climbing out on his side. "Got you!" he shouted triumphantly. He wrapped his arms around the younger man so he couldn't get away. "I win!"

Jeff pouted. "I let you win," he claimed.

"Oh you did?" John asked in amusement.

"Yeah." Jeff tried to wriggle way but he immediately stopped when John pressed their lips together. Then he wrapped his arms around John's neck and let him deepen the kiss, mewling softly as Cena explored his mouth eagerly. John refused to break the kiss until his lungs started burning from the lack of oxygen. As Jeff stood there with a dazed look on his faze, John smirked and poked him on the chest. "Tag. You're it."

…

"Let me out!" Ashley screamed as she tried to break down the door. There were two doors in the room that she was in but she wasn't going to dare go over to the second one. Judging from the sounds that were coming from the other side of that door, it sounded like there was some sort of monster on the other side of it. "Trish? Lita? Candice? Somebody help me!"

The growling from behind the second door got louder and she screamed as someone began trying to get into the room. "Leave me alone!" she yelled at whoever (or whatever) it was and tried even harder to get out of the room. "Please just leave me alone!"

The pounding stopped and for one brief moment, she thought that had actually worked. But she was soon proven wrong by the door being taken completely off its hinges and a gigantic man wearing a black mask came in. She screamed in terror and backed into the corner as the monster of a man approached her. "Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck," she said under her breath. "Oh God please leave me alone…"

The man paused, just staring at her as her whole body shook. His wild eyes seemed to hold some compassion for her. But then Stevie came in and whacked him with the belt, scaring him out of his trance. "Damn it Abyss, grab her!" he growled. "Boss is waiting for us and if we don't get moving--"

Abyss didn't wait for him to finish. Apparently he knew the consequences of keeping the boss waiting. He grabbed Ashley roughly, threw her over his shoulder and carried her out of the room. She began struggling wildly, kicking her feet and pounding her fists into his back. It wasn't having any effect on him whatsoever but she wasn't prepared to give up without a fight. "LET ME GO! TRISH! SOMEONE HELP ME!"

…

Trish winced as she heard Ashley screaming at the top of her lungs. Raven laughed at her after he had licked her blood off the blade of his knife. "I love the sound of screaming in the morning," he said happily.

Daffney, who had dragged Amy in here just a few moments ago, giggled as she kept a knife held up to the red head's throat. "Its actually afternoon right now."

Raven shook his head. "Morning, afternoon, it's all the same thing. Isn't it Trish?"

Trish ignored him and glared at Daffney. She absolutely hated seeing some crazy bitch press a knife up to her girlfriend's throat. It made her blood absolutely boil.

Daffney noticed the look Trish was giving her and giggled madly because of it. "What's wrong Trishie? Are you mad at me? Do you want to kill me?" She pressed the blade of the knife up against Amy's throat so hard that a thin line of blood appeared against the smooth flesh. "Come on, you can be honest."

"Get that fucking knife away from her," Trish growled. She was doing absolutely everything she could to get out of the restraints that were keeping her tied down to the chair. "Or I swear to God I'll--" She was cut off mid-sentence by Raven backhanding her across the face as hard as he could. Her head whipped violently to the left and her own blood filled her mouth as a result of her lip being split open.

"Tsk tsk tsk," Raven said as he shook his head. "That is no way to talk to your hosts Trish, especially after you've been so uncooperative."

Before she could snap out a reply, the door opened and a large masked man carrying Ashley and Stevie came into the room. Raven smirked coldly at the guy. "Put the slut down Abyss," he ordered. "And take the red head from Daffney. Its time to show Trishie here that we mean business."

Trish struggled against her restraints as Abyss reluctantly tossed Ashley down to the ground and took Amy from Daffney. Amy tried to fight him off but he was way too strong for her. "Now listen here," Raven said, grabbing Trish by the hair and forcing her to look him in the eyes. "You are going to help me get Jeff here whether you like it or not. And if you don't…" His voice trailed off as he moved her head to force her to look at Abyss and Amy. "I'm going to make my monster teaches her about the touch of a man."

Trish scowled. She had never hated anyone more than she hated Raven right there at that moment. What made it worse though was that she could tell he was dead serious about that threat, and now she had no choice to but to sell Jeff out to this psycho. "Fine," she agreed. "Give me my fucking phone you piece of shit."

Raven laughed. "That's a good girl. I knew you would see things my way."

Trish just continued to scowl. She was going to fucking kill the bastard for this, even if it was the last thing she did.

…

Connor laughed as Thor and Snoopy chased each other around the yard. "Go go go!" he shouted, not even positive about who he was cheering for at this point. "Go doggies go! Go doggies go!"

"Connor would you be quiet?" Glenn yelled from inside the house. "I can't concentrate on my shows when you scream like that!"

Connor put his hands on his hips and stared into the window defiantly. "NOBODY CARES ABOUT YOU AND YOUR PORN UNCLE GLENN!"

Glenn groaned. "Jesus Christ Connor! Shut your mouth before I fucking shut you up!"

Connor cackled. He didn't think that Glenn would really try to go through with that threat. Glenn didn't have the balls to fuck with him. "Fuck fuck fuck a duck, screw a kangaroo, stick a dildo up your ass I learned it all from you!" He sang this song over and over again as he hopped around the yard. Thor and Snoopy started barking and chasing after him. Midway through his fourth trip around the yard, he noticed three men staring at him. This made him stop in his tracks and stare back at them. He had never seen any of them before in his life but he knew exactly what they were. "Infidels!" he shouted, glaring and pointing at them. "Dirty infidels! I kill you!"

The three men didn't move or acknowledge that he had ever spoken. That didn't bother him too much though. He just stuck his tongue out at them before taking Thor and Snoopy into the house. _I'm gonna get those infidels after I have my ice cream. Ice cream must happen first. Ice scream you scream I'm gonna eat all the ice cream!_

…

"Sir? Vy vere ve staring at the boy?" Kozlov asked.

Regal sighed. "The boy has Paul and Katie's dog."

"Are you sure?" Jackson asked, speaking for the first time since…well Regal didn't know when.

"I'm sure," Regal assured them. "I would know Wolfie anywhere."

"Do you think he killed your cousins?"

Regal shrugged. "I don't know. That's what we're going to find out…in due time."

…

Jeff grinned as John pulled up into the driveway. The sun was just starting to set and he was totally spent from playing at the park. "That was nice," he said, having absolutely no desire to get out of the car any time soon.

"It was," John agreed. "We'll have to do that again sometime."

"Yeah." Jeff leaned over and gave John a soft kiss on the lips. "Call me tomorrow?"

"Definitely," John agreed.

Happy with that response, Jeff got out of the car and started heading towards the house. After turning around to wave goodbye to John as he pulled away, he took his cell phone and saw that he had a voicemail. Thinking it was from Matt, he went ahead and let it play.

"Jeff?" It was Trish Stratus, a friend of his he hadn't seen or heard from for years. "It's Trish…listen, we have a big--stop it! Leave her alone you--"

There was a loud smacking noise and then Trish could be heard crying out in pain. There was more screaming in the background and then the cold, evil voice Jeff only heard in nightmares now became a reality once again.

"Oh Jeff," Raven drawled out. "Call me back when you get this. We need to talk."


	14. Going Under

Jeff just stood there, completely horrified by what he had just heard. He took several deep breaths, hoping that this was some sort of horrible dream. But then he replayed the message again and realized that this wasn't a dream. This was for real. "No no no no," he groaned, sinking down to his hands and knees. It had been years since he had actually heard Raven's voice but as soon as that message had started to play, every word the older man spoke brought up loads of bad memories. All those things he had been repressing for so long…they were all rushing back at him all at once…

_Jeff trembled in fear as Raven circled him menacingly. The two of them were alone in Raven's house, which was the last place he should have ever gone. He had been told over and over again that Raven was dangerous by numerous people. But when this all began, he hadn't actually cared about any of that. There had been something about Raven that had really spiked his curiosity and made it so he didn't give a damn about any of the warnings that he had been given. Of course, what he hadn't realized before was the fact that Raven had been manipulating him from the moment they had met, luring him into a false sense of security and not letting him realize what he was getting into until it was too late to escape. He was trapped in Raven's clutches and there was no escaping._

"_So I saw you flirting with that little bitch Justin," Raven said. Even though his voice sounded calm, Jeff knew it was a trick. He knew that Raven was literally seconds away from exploding._

"_I wasn't flirting," Jeff objected, even though he knew that it was no use. Raven wasn't going to believe him. Raven perceived things his own way and there was no changing his mind once he had it made up. "I--"_

_The blow came so hard and fast that when it landed on Jeff's cheek, he fell over to the floor. He cried out in pain before he could stop himself, which made him even more scared. Every cry of pain, every scream, every plea to stop--they all served to egg Raven on even more._

"_You weren't flirting huh?" Raven said as he grabbed Jeff by the hair and pulled him back up to his knees. "Are you sure about that? Are you sure you weren't thinking about sucking AJ's cock and then letting him fuck you like the slut you are?"_

_Jeff tried to shake his head but couldn't really move his head that much because the grip Raven had on him was so tight. " I wasn't…I would never--" He cried out as his head was yanked back violently. "Raven please--"_

"_Please what?" Raven asked in a mocking voice. "Huh? What do you want me to do?" He twisted Jeff's hair even more, almost ripping it right out of his scalp. "Now listen to me Jeffery. You should know by now that you belong to me. If I want to pimp you out to someone else, then I damn well will. But if you fuck around on me behind my back, you have to be punished."_

_Jeff felt his heart drop down to his stomach. He had been punished by Raven before and it was not an experience that he wanted to repeat ever again. "No please I--" He was cut off by Raven grabbing him by the throat and--_

"Jeff! Jeff!"

Jeff came out of the memory shaking like a leaf. He had gotten so lost in the flashback that he hadn't noticed that Glenn had come outside until just that moment. "Wh-what?" he said, his voice unable to get above a whisper.

Glenn was looking at him with real concern on his face. "That's what I should be asking you," he said. "What happened? You look like you just saw a ghost."

Jeff shook his head. "I have to make a call," he said under his breath. He slipped out of Glenn's grasp and started stumbling to the house. He attempted to dial the number that was showing on his screen (which he now realized was Trish's cell phone number) but his hands were shaking so bad that he almost dropped the phone.

"Okay, you need to just stop," Glenn said firmly. He grabbed a hold of Jeff and helped him get into the house. "Just take a deep breath and tell me what's going on."

"I can't," Jeff said in a shaky voice. He slipped out of Glenn's grip yet again and managed to run into the bathroom so he could have some privacy. He had never told anyone about the true nature of his relationship with Raven. He knew that Trish had suspected that really bad things had been going on, but he had never told a soul about any of it because he had been (and still was) afraid of the repercussions. It had been made clear to him on more than one occasion that if he spoke a word to anyone about it, whether it be on accident or on purpose, the price he would have to pay for doing so had never seemed worth it.

After taking a few deep breaths, he finally managed to get the numbers dialed. "Fuck fuck fuck," he muttered under his breath as he waited for someone to answer.

"Jeff?" Glenn said loudly as he pounded on the door. "What the hell is going on with you?"

"Leave me alone!" Jeff said, leaning back against the door and sinking down to the floor. "I'll be out in a minute."

While that did nothing to soothe Glenn, Jeff didn't have anymore time to worry about him. His call was finally answered and the voice he heard on the other end made him start to hyperventilate the moment he heard it. "Jeeefffreeeeyyy," Raven drawled out. "Jeffrey is that you? This better be you or I'm going to be very disappointed."

Jeff tried to gulp but discovered that he couldn't. The lump in his throat was way too large. "What do you want?" he asked, his voice so small and fearful that he didn't even recognize it.

Raven chuckled. "I want you silly. Why would this be about anything else?"

Jeff shook his head. "Raven please--"

"Oh yes, beg for me Jeff," Raven interrupted. "Beg--hey! Richards! Keep control of that retard!" There was a loud crash and the sound of two girls screaming and Trish yelling her head off. Jeff winced and began rocking back and forth. He didn't want to imagine what Raven could have done to Trish in order to get his number. Raven was the master of getting what he wanted, and he wasn't afraid to use violence if necessary.

"I'm surrounded by sluts and idiots," Raven said after whatever issue that had been going on at his end was resolved. "Now Jeff, you listen to me and you listen to me good because I'm only going to say this once. I'm going to give you two days to get to Los Angeles. If you're not here by then, then not only are Trish and her friends going to die, but I will hunt you down and I will get you myself. Do you understand me?"

"Y-yes," Jeff stammered out. His whole body was shaking at this point. He knew that Raven wasn't fucking around. The bastard was psychotic enough to do everything he was threatening to do.

"Good bitch," Raven said. He made a psychotically evil kissing sound. "See you soon love."

Jeff just let his phone slip out of his hand after Raven had hung up on him. It felt like his heart had turned to ice and dropped down to his stomach. He was faintly aware that Glenn was still pounding on the door, but he was so disconnected from it that it seemed like a dream. All he could think about was how fucked he was. If he went to Los Angeles, Raven would get him and he would get punished for running away from him. But if he stayed here, people would die and once Raven found a way to find him (which he would…he was an evil genius and they always found what they wanted), he would not only be punished for running away, but he would be punished for being disobedient. So really, no matter which way he looked at it, he was extremely and utterly fucked.

…

Stephanie sighed as she leaned back in her chair. There were times when she really hated her job and this was definitely one of those times. It felt like absolutely nothing could go right for her. Her department was no closer to finding out the identity of the Murder City Saints, which meant they were no closer to finding out who killed four of the cops in her own department. Then there was Regal and his men who were still running around, potentially looking to take the law into their own hands, which was the last thing she needed to happen. If the three of them went after the MCS, she had little doubt in her mind that the MCS would get the best of them. And if that happened, there was going to be a lot of trouble, because even though he was a total asshole, Regal was still an important member of the English government. If he wound up dead, there would be a shit load of trouble, which was something she had enough of already.

Her cell phone rang and she reached forward and grabbed it. "What?" she said, too tired and frustrated to be courteous to the person calling.

"Steph it's me," AJ said, not even fazed by the way she had answered his call.

Stephanie sighed. "Are you and Gail still trailing Regal?"

"Yeah. There's something interesting going on though. They're trying to act all normal and stuff, but we can tell they're keeping an eye on this house."

"What house?" Stephanie grabbed a pen and a notepad so she could write it down."

"3356 Baker Street."

"Can you see any obvious reason that they would be watching it?"

"Well…there's a dog there that looks an awful like Wolfie."

She frowned. "Who the hell is Wolfie?"

"Paul and Katie Lea's dog that hasn't been seen since the night they got killed."

Stephanie's eyes widened. Maybe this was just a coincidence, but then again, maybe it wasn't. "Keep an eye on the situation," she ordered. "I'll meet up with you soon, okay?"

"Okay."

She ended the call and scooted herself closer to her computer. Once she found out who exactly lived in that house, she needed to find a picture of Wolfie and then go over there and see for herself whether it could be the same dog or not.

…

"Would you stop eating your food like a fucking pig?" Mark said irritably. "You're being really fucking disgusting right now."

James just continued to shovel more and more food in his mouth. He didn't give a rat's ass whether he was grossing Mark out or not. If Mark hadn't wanted to be trapped in a car with him while he was eating, he shouldn't have gone through the Burger King drive-thru. So really, this was all his fault.

"I don't think he's going to listen to you," Tom said wisely. "In fact, I think he's probably planning your doom right now."

"What the hell makes you say that?" Mark asked.

"Remember you putting him and me together in bed while naked?"

Mark chuckled. "Oh yeah." Then he suddenly got nervous. "Hey uh…you're not really that mad about that, are you Lawson?"

James smirked. "That's for me to know and you to find out." He went to grab his Dr. Pepper so he could take a drink of it but stopped when he caught sight of something interesting. Randy Orton, someone he hadn't seen for a few years now, was chasing after Cooper, who seemed to be…off somehow. "Mark pull over," he ordered.

Mark, who was seeing this sight too, pulled over and got out of the car along with James. "What the hell is that boy doing?" he asked.

James shook his head. He didn't know but he really wanted to find out. "Cooper!" he yelled. "Cooper!"

Randy, who had just managed to grab Cooper by the back of the shirt, froze. His eyes got really big and he gulped. "Oh shit."

Cooper looked at James and just began to laugh. "Uh oh! Daddy's home!"

"What the---oh you have got to be kidding me," James said in disbelief as he quickly realized that Cooper was high. He thought they had kicked this shit a long time ago. "Cooper Benjamin Lawson! What the fuck did you do?"

"I didn't do nothing!" Cooper said defensively. "Who told you I did?" He looked at Randy. "It was you, wasn't it? You did it!"

Randy shook his head. "The only thing I've been doing is following you around and making sure you didn't get into trouble."

"And how's that worked out for you?" Tom asked as he came out to join the situation.

"It's been a pain in my ass," Randy replied.

"Yeah well, I'll take it from here," James said. He grabbed Cooper and dragged him over to the car.

"Hey!" Cooper protested. "Let me go! Damn it, I don't want to go with you!"

"I don't care," James snapped. He got Cooper into the backseat of the car and then got back there himself so he could keep his son from jumping out of there. Once he got Cooper sobered up, he was going to give his boy more hell than he had given him in a long time. _And hopefully, the fucking message sticks this time._


	15. From Yesterday

Matt approached the comic book store hesitantly, not sure whether he should be doing this or not. It had only been a couple of hours since his and Evan's date had ended but he couldn't get the young man out of his head at all. He had tried going to the store to get the grocery shopping done, but he had been so distracted that he hadn't been able to find anything they needed back at the house. Finally he had given up and chose to go see if Evan was still at work. If he wasn't there, he was going to go to the shelter he had met him at in the first place.

_This is so strange,_ he thought as he got closer and closer to the store. _I've never been able to not get someone out of my mind before_. That really was the truth (well, Jeff was an exception to that rule but that was different. Thinking about his brother's safety was far from the same thing he was going through right now with Evan). Every other relationship he had been in, he had gotten into it because he had thought it was what he was supposed to do. He had always wanted to try to be normal, but being with someone hadn't felt as natural as it did with Evan. It was kind of weird, but also very nice.

He went into the store and looked around, not seeing anyone at first. "Hello?" he called out, walking further in and looking around.

"I'm here!" Shane called out. He emerged from the back trying way too hard to look innocent.

Matt raised his eyebrows. "Where's Oscar?"

"The bank."

"And he left you in charge?"

Shane shrugged. "You would think he would know better by now, but yeah, he did."

"Maybe it's because the last time you had to run an errand for the store, you ended up at a strip club instead."

"Yeah well, that wasn't my fault. He should have known better than to send me out when there's so many strippers out there that need my money." Shane shook his head and put his hand on Matt's shoulder. "But enough about me. What about you? What brings you here?"

Matt started to turn red. "I uh…I want to see Evan," he admitted.

Shane chuckled. "You do huh? Well then, I can't deny you of that. He's in the back just finishing up. He's supposed to get off in like three minutes."

"Good thing I got here when I did then," Matt said. "Thanks man."

"Any time." Shane gave Matt two thumbs up. "Go get him tiger."

Matt rolled his eyes before walking back to where Shane said Evan was. He entered the back room as quietly as he could, hoping to surprise the younger man. That ended up working out pretty well for him. Evan didn't see him until he punched out and started trying to leave. "Holy crap!" he gasped, almost stumbling back into a pile of crates because he was so surprised. "Matt! You scared me!"

Matt grinned sheepishly. "Sorry. I didn't mean to."

Evan took several deep breaths to calm himself back down before speaking again. "What did you mean to do then?" he asked, gulping as Matt began to approach him.

"I…I had to see you," Matt admitted. He finally came to a stop just inches from Evan. His breathing was already starting to quicken and he hadn't really done anything yet. "I couldn't stop thinking about you."

Evan swallowed heavily. "I…couldn't stop thinking about you either," he admitted, turning a bright shade of pink.

That was all Matt really needed to hear. Abandoning his usual method of thinking these kinds of things out before acting, he grabbed Evan by the waist and kissed him hungrily, groaning when Evan kissed him back. They just stood there for a moment, trapped in each other's embrace before Matt got the presence of mind to move them so he could push Evan up against the wall pin him down there.

"Oh God," Evan gasped, whimpering as Matt attacked his neck with kisses. He spread his legs and settled himself down on Matt's leg, bucking his hips and grinding against him uncontrollably. Matt let out a groan before unbuttoning Evan's jeans and shoving his hand down there so he could grab on to the younger man's cock and start stroking it. He knew they were probably moving way too fast, but at the moment he couldn't bring himself to care. He was sick and tired of moving slow. They needed this; that much was obvious.

Evan gasped as Matt started rubbing him even harder, resting his head back against the wall. His eyes were fluttering and his hips were bucking towards Matt's hand like crazy. It was turning Matt on more than he had ever been turned on before, but he ignored his own needs in order to focus on Evan's pleasure. "Cum for me," he ordered as he quickened his pace. "Can you do that for me baby? I want to watch you do it…"

Evan whimpered and writhed around against the wall desperately, rapidly approaching the point of no return. Matt quickly kissed again, swallowing most of the moan Evan let out when he came all over Matt's hand.

"Oh God," Evan gasped, panting for breath and trying to regain his composure once he was done riding out his orgasm.

Matt nodded and kissed Evan's forehead. "I swear I did not actually plan that out on my way here," he claimed, which really was the truth. He had fantasized about how this meeting would go down on the way there, but he had never thought it would go this far.

"You sure about that?" Evan asked with a small smile. He looked down at Matt's erection, which was doing its best to escape from the confines of his jeans. "You want me to take care of that for you?"

Matt did. He wanted that so badly that it hurt. But before he could say so, his phone rang, breaking the mood right up. He wanted to ignore it so badly, but he knew he couldn't. He had done so before and every time he had, it had led to disaster. "Give me two seconds," he told Evan, taking a step back so he could get his phone out of his pocket and answer it. "Hello?"

"It's me," Glenn said, sounding very serious. "Where are you?"

"I'm uh…I'm kind of busy right now. Is there any possible way that this could wait?" Matt really hoped there was because his hard on was absolutely killing him.

"I think Jeff's in trouble."

Matt groaned. That was the ultimate boner killer for him. "Where is he?"

"Home for now. I caught him trying to sneak out though and he's all nervous and jumpy…"

"I'll be right there," Matt said, hanging up the phone and putting it away. That was all he really needed to hear. Jeff didn't act like that unless something serious was wrong and he was trying to hide it.

"What's wrong?" Evan asked.

"My brother's in trouble," Matt answered. He gave the Evan an apologetic look. "I'm sorry but I have to--"

"Go ahead," Evan said quickly. "It's fine. Just call me later, okay?"

Matt nodded. "Definitely." He placed a firm kiss on Evan's lips before turning around and leaving to go find out what the hell had gone wrong now.

…

Jeff shook his head at Glenn. "You shouldn't have called him," he said, compulsively shifting around in his seat. His attempt to leave right after his phone call with Raven had been thwarted by Glenn, who had gotten tired of being ignored and had forced him to sit down in the kitchen and wouldn't let him get up. "There's nothing--"

"Don't tell me there's nothing wrong," Glenn snapped, peeking out into the living room to make sure Connor was still watching TV. "I know you're lying Jeff. It's so fucking obvious it's painful."

Jeff scowled. "It is not!" he denied, even though he knew it was the truth. "You're just being paranoid." He folded his arms over his chest in order to hide the fact that his hands were actually starting to shake. "Now can I go? I have things to do you know."

Glenn shook his head. "You're not going anywhere until you tell me what's going on with you."

Jeff wanted to tell him; he really did. But he was scared. He remembered just how bad Raven's temper was and he really still did not want to test it at all. "There's nothing wrong!" he denied vehemently. "You're being paranoid." He got to his feet because he had every intention of storming right on out of there, but he found himself being pushed back into his seat by Glenn. "Hey!" he objected. He tried to get up again but Glenn just forced him back down again. "Stop it!" he yelled. "You can't do that!"

"I can if I want to," Glenn replied. He knelt down in front of Jeff and pressed his hands down on Jeff's shoulders so he couldn't try to get up again. "What the fuck has gotten you so antsy? And don't keep lying to me because I don't want to hear it."

Jeff bit down on his lower lip. "There's just…I…an old friend of mine is in trouble. And if I don't go save her by myself the guy who has her is going to--"

"Hurt her?" Glenn shook his head. "Jeff, who told you this?"

"The guy."

"And you believe him? Why?"

"Because I know he's not lying."

"How do you know that?"

Jeff gulped. He didn't want to keep talking about this, but he thought if maybe he did Glenn would understand his position and let him go. "He's my ex-boyfriend," he confessed. "He's psychotic Glenn. Fucking guy is a diabolical genius. And I know this is a trap but I _have_ to go. You don't know what he's like when he's angry. He--"

"He was abusive wasn't he?" Glenn interrupted.

Jeff froze, unable to do anything but let his jaw hang open wordlessly. Glenn sighed, seemingly getting the answer he needed from Jeff's answer. "Jesus Christ Jeff," he muttered. He let go of Jeff's shoulder and shook his head. "What kind of relationship did you get yourself into?"

Jeff couldn't answer that question earlier. He just looked down at his lap, trying to fight the tears that were threatening to spill out. Ever since he had escaped Raven's clutches, all he had done was try to suppress everything that the older man had done to him. Every hit, every insult, every rape, every time he had been pimped out, every sick game--he had tried to bury it so deep that it would never come back to hurt him again. But now there was no more running and no more hiding. Raven had his number and everything was rushing back at him at once, twisting his stomach into knots and making him want to go in a corner and die.

"Hey, look at me," Glenn said gently. He took Jeff's head and forced him to look back up. "I don't care what this fucker said; you are not doing this on your own. The others and I are going to help you. Okay?"

Jeff reluctantly nodded, but that promise did very little to calm him down. He was in complete panic mode and he had every intention of staying this way until this whole fucking thing was over with.

…

"Damn it," Gail cursed under her breath as she looked around. "I hate stake outs."

AJ cocked his eyebrows but he didn't bother looking over at her. "Getting antsy?"

"Yeah," she admitted. "I just fucking wish Regal and his cronies would do something already. It would be nice to actually bust someone for a change."

"We busted a couple of those guys who shot up the VIP Lounge," AJ pointed out.

"Yeah, but how much do you want to bet that the MCS already took care of the other suspects?"

AJ didn't respond that. He didn't have to. They both knew that the vigilante group probably had already struck again. It was just a matter of time before the bodies popped up.

"What are you staring at anyway?" she asked, leaning over towards his seat so she could look out his window. "You're supposed to be watching for the British Invasion with me."

"I know," he said. "But I think I see someone I once knew."

"You do? Where?"

"In there. You see into that kitchen? That kid with different colored hair and the big bald guy?"

Gail nodded. "Yeah, I see them. What about them?"

"The guy sitting down was a guy I was friends with for awhile when I was a teenager," AJ told her. "Jeff Hardy…I haven't seen him in years."

Gail raised her eyebrows. "Do you think he lives here with the people that might have Paul and Katie's dog?"

AJ shrugged. He didn't know what to think for sure. Back in the day when he ran around with Jeff, Trish Stratus and Justin Gabriel, Jeff was the one he wasn't as close to. The guy had been sweet, but he had been kind of distant from the very beginning, and it had gotten even worse when he had gotten involved with some guy named Raven.

"Well I guess we'll find out soon enough," Gail said. She started looking around, her eyes widening when she saw something that caught her interest. "Look," she said to AJ, actually directing his head in the proper direction with her hands. When he looked, he saw the kid that had been out in the backyard earlier had come out the front door and it appeared that he was taking the dogs for a walk. But what was really interesting was that as soon as he started going, Regal and his men began "nonchalantly" going in the same direction.

"Me thinks we need to follow them," Gail said wisely.

AJ nodded and turned the car back on. He needed to let Regal and his goons get a little bit ahead so they didn't catch on to the fact that they were being followed right away. "Me thinks you're right," he replied. _Because this could turn into one hell of a situation_.


	16. Perfect Insanity

John sighed heavily as he pulled up into his driveway. He had really enjoyed the time he had spent with Jeff earlier and he really wanted to do it again as soon as possible…which was kind of a problem. Despite feeling more comfortable around Jeff than he had been around anyone in years, he still kind of felt guilty because he was still technically dating Torrie. Sure they were growing apart and if Dave was right she was already cheating on him, but still, he needed to break things off with her before he tried to pursue anything more with Jeff.

Turning off the ignition and stepping out of the vehicle, he frowned when a strange feeling began to take over him. There just seemed to be something….off about his own house. Not liking that feeling at all, he tried to shake it off as he entered the house. Torrie's tiny little dog Chloe ran up and greeted him with little kisses to his leg, but Torrie herself was nowhere to be seen. However, there was someone else's jacket on the coat rack and the coffee table in the living room was now holding an empty bottle of wine and two half full wine glasses.

_What in the hell is this shit?_ he asked himself as he began creeping through his own house. Dave's words about Torrie cheating on him began ringing in his head, and while he had figured they were probably true deep down, he had never in a million years thought she would do anything in his own house. That was a line that he hadn't even thought she would cross.

The sound of Torrie's moaning lead him upstairs. Much to his shock and anger, they were coming from _his own_ bedroom. "Oh you have got to be kidding me," he growled. He took several deep breaths in order to calm himself down a little bit before kicking open the door (yes it was dramatic but he didn't want to try to open it and have it be locked). Torrie screamed and Matt Morgan, who was friend's with Stacy's boyfriend, jumped off of her like he had just gotten shot.

"Alright, party's over," John said loudly, turning on the lights and glaring at the secret couple angrily.

Torrie shook her head frantically, a deer in the headlights look plastered on her face. "John wait, it's not what it looks like!" she exclaimed.

John gave her an incredulous look. "It's not what it looks like? How the hell is this not what it looks like?" That had to be the stupidest thing he had ever heard her say.

Morgan got out of bed and tried to say something, but John cut him off with a swift punch in the face. "Get the FUCK out of my house," he growled. "NOW!"

"Okay okay!" Morgan said quickly. He quickly scrambled back up to his feet and slipped on his boxers before gathering up the rest of his clothes in his arms and then running out of the room.

Torrie winced at the look on John's face. "Baby please, let me--"

"No," John said without hesitation. "I don't want to hear it." He grabbed her clothes that were on the floor and tossed them at her. "I don't care whether this was the first time or the hundredth time; I want you out of this house as soon as possible."

Her jaw dropped about as low as it could go. "Are you kidding me?"

"No," he said. He went over to the closet and started throwing all of her shit out of it. Sure he could be called a hypocrite because he had been kissing Jeff behind her back, but kissing Jeff a couple of times was no comparison to walking in on her fucking some other man in his bed.

"But…but where would I go?" she asked, trying to make herself cry now. It was one of her favorite tactics and it usually worked because John usually didn't like to see people cry. But since he was on to her act, it wasn't going to work the way she wanted it to this time.

"I don't know and I don't care." John got her suitcase out and put it on the bed. "Just get your shit packed and get out as fast as possible. The next time I have to tell you this I'm just tossing you out and sending your stuff in the mail." He gave her a stern look before storming out of the room and slamming the door behind him. _Wow…I feel better._

…

"Do you have any idea how mad I am at you right now?" James asked as he dragged Cooper into the house. "Huh? Do you? Or do you even care at this point? Are you that convinced that your life means nothing and you have to start this shit up again just to feel good?"

"Fuck off Dad!" Cooper said stubbornly. "It's none of your business!"

"You're not going to get through to him Lawson," Mark said as he and Tom followed the Lawson train wreck. "He's too fucked up."

"I am not!" Cooper denied. "Now let me—whoa!" He yelped when he was thrown down on the couch rather violently. "Dad! Jesus Christ! Lighten up will ya?"

James ignored him in favor of getting right in his face. He knew this method was more than likely going to start a fight but he didn't care. He was so angry right now that it was taking every ounce of self control he had not to smack Cooper right across the face at the moment. "Why?" he asked bluntly. "Why now? And who the fuck sold you the shit?"

"I wanted to alright?" Cooper said irritably. "And it doesn't matter who sold it to me. Now leave me alone!" He got up and tried to push James out of the way but James immediately pushed him back down.

"Uh James, maybe you should—"

Mark quickly put his hand over Tom's mouth, not daring to let him finish that sentence. Which, in all honesty, really was for the best. With the mood James was currently in, there was no telling just how badly he would snap at any given second.

"What the fuck is going on in here?" Glenn asked as he came into the room. Matt and Jeff soon followed him, and James was somewhat startled to see that Jeff looked beyond shaken and Matt was basically the only thing holding him up.

"What the hell happened to him?" Mark asked, pointing at Jeff and defusing the volitile Lawson situation by changing the subject.

Jeff immediately began to shake his head and whimper. "I can't I can't…." He gave Matt a desperate look. "Don't make me explain it again."

"I won't," Matt quickly assured him. He looked at Glenn for help and Glenn just sighed before explaining the situation with Jeff, Raven and Jeff's friends. James listened to the story as best as he could while trying to keep Cooper from getting up and bailing on him. When Glenn was done, James shook his head at Jeff. "You ain't going alone," he stated. "Not at all."

"We've been over that," Matt said, tightening his grip on Jeff. "Glenn and I already agreed to go with him." He looked at Cooper and shook his head. "I wanted to get at least one of you guys to come along too, but if he's a mess—"

"Then we've only got me and Tom holding down the fort," Mark finished. "At least until you get back or Cooper gets his head on straight in record time."

"Fuck you mother fucker," Cooper said, flipping Mark off and then laying down on the couch.

James rolled his eyes. Operation Detox Cooper was going to be a royal bitch. He knew that for a fact already. _The boy is lucky I love him so much or I would so kill him right now. I really really fucking would._

…

"It rubs the lotion on its skn or else it gets the hose again. It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again. It rubs the—what's wrong baby? Don't you like that movie?"

Amy bit down on her lower lip and tried to control her breathing. Daffney was straddling her waist while lighting matches and dropping them down on her naked chest. Her hands were handcuffed behind her back so she couldn't just push the crazy bitch off. She had tried bucking her hips up a couple of times to throw her off that way, but those attempts had been epic fails.

"Get…off of her…crazy cunt…" Trish ordered, the blood from the cut on her head pouring down and drenching the side of her face. She had gotten too mouthy with Raven again so he had hit her really hard upside the head with a lead pipe a whole bunch of times. She had been fading in and out of consciousness ever since.

"You shut your mouth," Daffney ordered while she dropped another match on Amy's chest and watched it burn. "Nobody wants to hear you speak Barbie."

"Come on Abyss, would you just fucking do it already?" Stevie growled, smacking the masked man with his belt. "Damn it, what kind of monster are you?"

Abyss shrank back and frantically shook his head. For someone who was supposed to be this big monster, he was not only terrified of Stevie and Raven, but he sure seemed reluctant to hurt Ashley, which was what they were trying to get him to do.

"Please, you don't have to listen to them," Ashley said, trying to plead with Abyss. "You don't—" The rest of her plea was cut off by Raven taking a rope and wrapping it around her neck as tightly as he could.

"Stop it!" Amy yelled, trying once again to get Daffney off of her. "Stop! Let her go!"

"Why?" Raven asked, laughing coldly as Ashley tried in vain to loosen the rope around her neck. He looked down at her and sneered before he began bashing her head against the floor over and over again.

"Yeah baby, why should he stop?" Daffney asked, forcing Amy to look into her deranged eyes. "He's just having some fun, like you and I are about to."

Amy's eyes widened as Daffney started kissing her, getting even more freaked than she was before (which she really hadn't thought was possible before then). She tried to move her head away but Daffney was persistent, forcing her tongue into Amy's mouth and shoving one of her hands down her pants. Amy could literally feel the murderous glare Trish was giving Daffney, but that didn't stop the raven haired madwoman from slipping two fingers deep inside of Amy and circling her clit with her thumb. Amy shook her head and closed her eyes, doing everything she could to resist the pleasurable feelings that were going through her body. She did not want this to feel good. This was wrong. Daffney was molesting her in order to play mind games with her and Trish and her getting off would just help those games.

"No no my pretty," Daffney said, nipping at the crook of Amy's neck. "Don't block me out. We're just getting started." She kissed the burns she had made on Amy's chest earlier before taking her right breast into her mouth, hardening the nipple with her tongue and then biting down on it. Amy let out a pained whimper, which only made Daffney go over to the other breast and give it the same treatment.

"Now that is a thing of beauty," Raven said in appreciation. He abandoned Ashley's lifeless body and walked over to Trish, forcing her to stare at the scene before them. "I think Daffney goes better with her than you do Barbie"

Trish just scowled because that was all she could do. Amy shuddered as Daffney slipped her jeans and panties off, shivering as her flushed skin met the cold air. "So pretty," Daffney cooed, spreading Amy's legs apart before lapping at her core eagerly. Amy groaned, her body responding despite her mind telling it not to. She arched her hips up towards Daffney's mouth, little moans escaping her despite her attempts to hold them back.

"That's a good girl," Daffney giggled, thrusting three fingers back into Amy's wetness while sucking and nipping on her clit. Amy's orgasm hit her before she could stop it, and the cry she let out was a cross between a moan and a choked sob. She knew that the body could respond to unwanted sexual stimulation, but that didn't stop her from feeling guilty and dirty.

"Now that's what I call a show," Raven said, applauding Daffney and smirking evilly. He grabbed Trish by the hair and yanked her head up so she was looking at him. "Want to see if we can top it?"

Trish spat on him defiantly.

Raven chuckled. "I'm going to take that as a yes."

…

Connor probably wasn't the brightest bulb in the bunch, but he was smart enough to know when he was being followed. He was also smart enough to not let on that he realized that, so he kept walking along like he didn't notice a damn thing. His stalkers fell for the act hook, line and sinker, and he was able to lead them to an abandoned warehouse without any problems. "You two hide in here, okay?" he said to Snoopy and Thor as he stuck them in a small room that probably was a janitor's closet at one time. "Daddy has some work to do." He shut the door and then climbed up to the upper level of the warehouse, using the darkness to shield him from the people following him.

"This boy might be smarter than I thought," one of the men said as he and his accomplices entered the warehouse. "Kozlov, you go look over there, Jackson, you go over there and I'll stay here and keep an eye on things."

"Yes Master Regal," Kozlov grunted. He and Jackson began looking around, separating from each other and giving Connor a window of opportunity to act. He got his knife out and waited until Kozlov was almost underneath him before jumping down and sticking his knife directly into the Russian's neck.

"Bloody hell!" Regal yelled in shock. "Zeke!"

Jackson didn't speak a word. He simply got his gun out and fired at Connor several times, managing to graze his ear with one shot and actually get a bullet buried into his shoulder. Connor yelped in pain and quickly retreated back into the shadows, barely avoiding the rest of the bullets meant for him. "Stop it!" he whined. "That's cheating!"

The door to the warehouse was suddenly kicked open and a man and a woman came into the place. "Freeze!" the man yelled. "Police!"

Regal immediately got out of the way as Jackson started shooting at the cops, which gave Connor enough time to grab Snoopy and Thor and run out the back door. His shoulder was bleeding heavily and he did not enjoy the pain he was in at all. "Imma tell Daddy," he informed his dogs as they gladly ran the hell away from the chaos going on inside the warehouse. "Imma tell Daddy that the bad man hurted me and he gonna make them pay. He'll make them pay real bad!"

…**.**

**A/N: *points to Daffney muse* For people wondering about the femslash scene…it's her fault. She made me do it. It wasn't even supposed to be in the story at all but uh…yeah, resistance was futile in this case.**


	17. I Gotta Feeling

Connor opened the back door and let Snoopy and Thor in before going in himself. His shoulder hurt really bad and it was bleeding an awful lot. He wanted to dig his fingers into the wound and get the bullet out of it because it was NOT wanted, but it hurt a whole bunch and he didn't want it to hurt even more. Hurt was bad. He knew that for a fact.

"Daddy?" he called out, frowning when he didn't see anyone in the kitchen. He wanted attention and he wanted it now. "Daddy where are you?"

"Connor?" It was Glenn that was calling out to him. "Where the hell have you been?"

Connor sighed and watched Snoopy and Thor as they went over to their water bowls and started drinking. "I want Daddy!" he whined. "Get Daddy for me!"

"Uh…he's kind of busy at the mo--" Glenn stopped talking when he actually walked into the room and saw the blood all over Connor's shirt. "Holy shit! What happened to you?"

"There's a bullet in me," Connor whined, sitting down on the nearest chair because he was starting to feel sick and woozy. "Mean peoples didn't like me so they shot me."

"Jesus Christ," Glenn muttered, automatically going to one of the cupboards and getting out the first aid kit that they kept in there. "Who the fuck shot you?"

"Big guy named Zeke," Connor said with a pout. "I want Daddy. Where's Daddy? Why isn't he here for me?"

"He's upstairs tying down Cooper so he doesn't run off while he's crashing. He got high again." Glenn pulled up a chair in front of Connor. "Can you lift up your arms so I can get your shirt up?"

Connor immediately shook his head. "No. My boo boo hurts too much."

"Alright. I'm going to have to cut part of your shirt away then, so stay will, okay?"

Connor nodded. This was an old shirt that wasn't important to him so he didn't care if it got all cut up. "Can you still get Daddy for me?' he asked.

Glenn sighed. "Let me see what I can do…" He turned around so he could face the door. "Tom!"

"What?" Tom yelled from the other room.

"Go get James will you?"

"Why in the hell would I want to do that?"

"Tom seriously, you need to go get James. Connor's hurt."

There was no response on Tom's part, which hopefully meant he was going and doing what Glenn asked him to do. Connor bit down on his lower lip, whimpering as Glenn got to work on him. He probably really did need to go to the hospital, but he didn't want to. He hated hospitals too much. They smelled icky and made him feel bad.

Just a couple of moments later, they heard the unmistakable footsteps that could only belong to his daddy. "What the fuck happened?" James asked, almost breaking the door as he kicked it open. "Connor!"

"I got a boo boo," Connor said, wincing as Glenn began trying to dig the bullet out of him.

James's eyes literally looked like they were about to pop right out of his head. "Be careful with him jackass!" he yelled, almost taking a swing at Glenn right then and there. "He's delicate!"

Glenn gave James an irritated look. "Just comfort him Lawson," he said, refusing to be swayed from his work. "I know what I'm doing."

"Don't tell me what to do!" James growled as he knelt down beside Connor. He smoothed down his youngest son's hair and started trying to get information out of him. "What happened?" he asked, grabbing on to Connor's hand and trying not to look at Connor's wound. "Come on, tell Daddy what happened."

Connor sniffled and explained everything that happened while he had been out, stopping only to yelp in pain a couple of times while Glenn played surgeon. With each and every single word he uttered, James's eyes got darker and darker. Connor managed to smile even through his pain, because he knew his daddy would make things right for him. "You'll make them pay, won't you Daddy?" he asked, asking the question just to make sure they were on the same page. "You won't let them get away with hurting me, right?"

James shook his head. "No," he said. "I won't let them get away with it." He kissed the side of Connor's head. "I'll take care of everything for you."

…

Stephanie sighed heavily as she stared at AJ and Gail. They had just caught her up to speed on what had happened in the warehouse and it made her have a headache. Regal was now in their custody, which was already causing a huge uproar in places a lot higher than her, Jackson was in the hospital after the shootout with Gail and AJ (once he was set to be released, he was coming straight to jail) and Kozlov was deader than a doornail. "So you don't know if the guy they were following was in the warehouse," she said, rubbing her eyes tiredly.

AJ shook her head. "No. We got stuck behind a semi-truck and we only saw Regal and his boys go in there."

"But it wouldn't be unreasonable to think he was in there," Gail said, leaning back against the wall. "Someone had to off Kozlov. Either the kid did it or there was someone else in there waiting to do it."

"Or the knifing could have been done by a homeless guy who didn't like the uninvited guests,' AJ pointed out with a shrug. "You never know with this town."

Stephanie shook her head. There were too many variables in this equation. Variables led to having to guess, which was something she hated. She only liked to deal with facts. "Well James Lawson owns the house that you guys were watching earlier," she said, grabbing the file off the desk and handing it to them to look at. "He owns Likansuk Porn…has two kids named Cooper and Connor…got a speeding ticket in 1986 in Las Vegas, but beyond from that, there's really nothing overly suspicious…at least not that I can find."

"But you think there is somewhere," AJ guessed.

She nodded. "I looked up his picture in the DMV database…I just have this feeling about him. Just looking at him makes me think something's up with him."

"You want us to question him for you?" Gail asked.

Stephanie paused and thought about it. "You know…I want you to wait until I clear things up here. I want to come with you. I need to see for myself whether I'm right or if I'm just being paranoid." She was very rarely wrong with her intuitive feelings, but she had to meet the man for herself just to be safe.

…

Jeff knew that Matt didn't want him out running around at the moment. As soon as his older brother had found out about the Raven thing, his over protectiveness had gone into overdrive. Jeff appreciated the fact that Matt cared, but he had to get out and take care of this on his own. If he was going to L.A. in the morning and facing the very real possibility of not coming back, he had to do this now. He might not get another shot at it.

He walked up the porch steps leading to the house and knocked on the door, feeling even more nervous by the moment. Tom had looked up this address for him and helped distract Matt so he could sneak out and get there. "Come on, please answer," he said under his breath, not sure what he would do if he wasn't let in.

Lucky for him, he didn't have to find out. John answered the door and looked surprised to see him. "Jeff," he said, his lips starting to twitch into a grin but stopping when he noticed that Jeff seemed to be upset. "Are you alright?"

"Can I come in?" Jeff asked, avoiding the question completely.

John nodded and quickly allowed him to enter the house. "I was going to call you in the morning," he said, closing and locking the door behind him. "I was going to ask you if you wanted to go get some breakfast or something."

Jeff shook his head. "I can't. I um…I have to leave tomorrow."

John looked startled by that news. "You're leaving? Where? Why?"

"I have a friend who's in trouble. She's uh…in big big trouble." Jeff looked around John's house, admiring how nice it was. "Where's Torrie?" Now that he was there, he was just thinking about John's girlfriend. He hoped to God she wasn't there because that would just be really awkward to explain why he was there.

"I kicked her out," John told him. "I caught her cheating on me so I broke up with her."

"Oh." Jeff didn't know what else to say to that. Part of him was really happy to hear that the bitch was out of John's life. Even though he had never met her, she didn't sound like good news to him. But on the other hand, if he ended up being forced to go back to Raven, John was going to have nobody to move on with.

"Yeah," John said, nodding and sighing deeply. "But enough about that. What kind of trouble is your friend in?"

"Bad trouble," Jeff repeated.

"But what kind of bad trouble?" John asked, taking a few steps toward Jeff. The concern was becoming clearer and clearer on his face. "Is it drugs or--"

"She's been kidnapped," Jeff said, hoping that he could avoid having to get into all the dirty details. It was bad enough his brother and his friends all knew the truth now. He really could not handle John knowing he used to be someone else's whore. "My…ex-boyfriend is the kidnapper. I need to go and see if there's anything I can do to get him to set her free. I owe her that."

John blinked, looking taken aback by that. "That's really dangerous," he said, taking another step closer so he could gently move a piece of Jeff's hair out of his face.

"I know," Jeff said, trying to hide the shakiness in his own voice.

"Do you really have to go?"

"Yeah…he'll hurt her if I don't go."

John frowned, definitely not liking that answer. "Why exactly did he kidnap her? What was he trying to do?" He tilted his head to the side and watched as Jeff tried to think of some bullshit reason. "Was he trying to get to you or something?"

Jeff froze, not expecting for John to put the pieces together that fast. "Uh…uh…" He tried to think of something to say, but his mind went blank on him. All there was left was the truth. The horrible, ugly truth of what Raven was and what he wanted to do to him. He closed his eyes and tried to hold back his tears, but they were too strong for him. He let out a loud, choked sob before collapsing into John's arms, hating that he was such a mess but unable to pull himself together.

John held on to him tightly, letting him get all the crying out of his system. When he finally calmed down most of the way, he finally said what was on his mind. "You can't go," he said, smoothing Jeff's hair down lovingly. "I don't know the whole story obviously but even I know he's baiting you. You'll be playing right into his hands if you go."

"I know," Jeff said unhappily. "That's why I'm not going alone."

"But still--"

"John please, I don't want to talk about it anymore," Jeff said, wiping his tear stained eyes with the back of his hand. "I can't…" He shook his head, wanting to believe he was going to come back okay but knowing that Raven would do anything and everything in his power to make sure that didn't happen. "Can you do something for me please?" he asked.

John nodded. "Anything."

"Kiss me and make me forget?"

John didn't say a word. He just gave Jeff the gentlest kiss he had ever received. Jeff's breath caught in his throat, and for a moment, all he could do was take the kiss. But just as John started to pull away, he grabbed the older man by the back of the head and started kissing him back frantically, his mind racing a million miles an hour. John kissed him back eagerly, not protesting as Jeff jumped up and wrapped his legs around him. "Fuck me," Jeff pleaded, placing kisses all around John's neck.

John licked his lips and stared at Jeff nervously. "Jeff it's too so--"

"It's not too soon," Jeff insisted, holding on to John as tightly as he could. "John please…I've wanted this since the moment I met you. You're not taking advantage of me. You're just…you're giving me what I want."

John still looked uncertain for a bit, but when Jeff kissed him again his will broke, and he carried the smaller man upstairs to his room, setting him down on the bed. Jeff quickly pulled John down on top of him, kissing him some more and attempting to get his clothes off. His attempts didn't go that well though, because he kept fumbling with everything, and John eventually had to take over and do it for him.

"Relax," John said, kissing Jeff's throat gently. "Just relax. I'll take care of you."

Jeff nodded, watching John grab the lube off the dresser and pour some of it on to his fingers, getting them nice and slick. Jeff was about to tell him that he didn't have to use that, but he didn't have the voice to get those words out.

One finger and then a second and then a third; all three of them gently probing him and scissoring themselves apart, stretching him as much as they could. Jeff was lost not only in the pleasure, but in confusion as well. Nobody was ever this gentle with him. They didn't prep him like this and they sure as hell didn't fuck him so gently. Hell, he wasn't even sure if they were really even fucking. This was…so different. So gentle…it scared him. It really did. But he couldn't try to stop it, even if he really wanted to. He just clung to John and rocked his hips in time with the thrusts, wanting to enjoy this for as long as he could.

He would be gone by sunrise.


	18. Real World

John tried to get Jeff to stay with him, but the younger man still slipped out after he had drifted off to sleep, leaving only an apology note behind. He read it several times over, feelings of intense apprehension taking him over. Whatever Jeff was getting himself into out in California, it was much worse than he had tried to make it out to be. Add in the fact that he came from a neighborhood that was notorious for not trusting cops and John was sure that Jeff was walking into a deadly situation with no real protection. That was something John could not stand the thought of. Jeff getting hurt was just…he couldn't handle that. If there was something he could do to help, he wanted…no, NEEDED to do it.

"Go to California," Dave said after John called him and explained what was going on. "Tell Stephanie you've got a family emergency and go out there."

"But I don't know where he's going exactly," John pointed out. "We never discussed that."

"Yeah, but I have a good feeling about where he's going. Haven't you been watching the news? There's been one kidnapping coming out of California that involves anyone close to Jeff's age. Four girls were nabbed after a Hollywood Undead concert-"

"What city?"

"LA. Three people are believed to be behind the kidnapping…the press don't know their names yet but they know it's two guys and a girl."

"Shit." John began throwing his clothes on as fast as he could.

"Yeah, I agree," Dave said. "Look, like I said just a few minutes ago, tell Stephanie that you've got a family emergency or some shit. If you really care about Jeff, you should just go. At least make an attempt to do something."

"Oh believe me, I'm going," John said. He was already thinking up a lie to tell Stephanie. "Help cover for me, will you?"

"Of course," Dave said. "I've got your back."

"Thanks man." John ended the call and was already dialing Stephanie's number. He didn't give a shit what she thought about this whole thing. He just wanted to get to Jeff before anything happened to him.

…

Cooper knew before he even opened his eyes that he was already starting to go through withdrawal. The craving he had for more cocaine was so strong that he could barely stand it. "Fuck," he groaned. He tried to sit up but then discovered that he was still tied down. "Oh fuck no!" he yelled, frantically trying to get himself free from his restraints. "Dad! DAD! Let me the fuck up!"

"No," James refused calmly. He was sitting in the corner of the room, keeping a close eye on Cooper.

"Why not?" Cooper whined. He stopped struggling and gave his father a pleading look. "Dad please, it's not what you think. I'm just-"

"You're using again," James said, getting up and taking a couple of steps toward the bed. "And you're already going through withdrawal and I'm not even sure if you've completely crashed yet."

"Oh I've crashed alright," Cooper said, starting up his struggling once again. "I've crashed…Dad come on, let me out of these things! They're fucking too tight."

"Yeah well you'll escape if it's not tight enough," James pointed out. He closed the distance between himself and Cooper. "You think I want to do this? Believe me, I don't."

"So let me out," Cooper said. "Come on, you can't keep me like this forever!"

"I'm not going to," James replied, smoothing down Cooper's hair. "I just need to make sure you're not going to get up and start trying to hunt down more drugs. I'm not letting this shit continue. You're going to stop whether you like it or not."

Cooper scowled angrily. There were no words to describe how much he disliked that idea. He let out a frustrated growl before yelling a boatload of obscenities. While cocaine withdrawal didn't cause the physical symptoms normally associated with withdrawal, it did cause the person to be agitated (among other things). Agitation was never a good look on any of the Lawsons and given Cooper's position, it was beyond ugly.

"Lawson!" Mark yelled, coming into the room and giving Cooper an irritated look. "Shut that kid up and come downstairs. We've got a problem."

"Fuck you!" Cooper yelled as James gave Mark an irritated look for not being very sensitive to Cooper's state. "Get the fuck out of my room! I don't even want you here!"

Mark just rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well it's not like I want to be up here you dumb little coke head."

"Damn it Mark, now is not a good time," James said impatiently.

"Well that's too bad," Mark said. "Because we've got the fucking pigs downstairs…and they want to talk to _you_."

Cooper's jaw dropped at the exact same time James's did. "No way," he said in disbelief, shaking his head frantically. He had gone from zero to paranoid already and he was edging towards a full fledged freakout already. Cops wanting to talk to James was never a good thing, especially since James didn't always know how to watch his mouth around them. "They can't be here. Dad, tell them to go away. They're not allowed in-"

"Cooper calm down," James ordered, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "Just…just be quiet alright? I'm going to take care of this."

Cooper shook his head as James left the room. He did not want to just be left there. "Dad?" he said as his struggles to get free grew more frantic than before. "Dad don't just leave me right here. I think my wrists are bleeding-"

"Well if you wouldn't have started struggling like an idiot, you would have been okay," Mark said in exasperation. He took the bandana that was on his head off and went over to Cooper so he could gag him with him. "Just so you don't yell and attract attention to yourself," he said, patting Cooper on the cheek and smirking before leaving the room.

Cooper groaned in frustration. He was going to kill Mark for that. He really as. _Fucking asshole…his fucking bandana taste like shit._

…

When James got into the living room, he found Tom entertaining two women and a man and Connor was nowhere in sight. That meant he was still knocked out from the pain pills and James hoped that he would stay that way until the pigs were gone. The last thing they needed was to have him come in and start talking. Connor was the king of giving away incriminating stuff because he couldn't keep his mouth shut.

"Mr. Lawson?" the brunette woman said as she laid eyes him.

"Yes?" James said, already not liking the vibe he was getting from this lady.

"I'm Lt. Stephanie McMahon and this is Detectives AJ Styles and Gail Kim. We just wanted to ask you some questions."

"Right," James said, sitting down to his chair and doing his best to look pleasantly confused. "Ask away."

Stephanie looked at AJ, who cleared his throat and began the process. "Yesterday it was brought to our attention that three people we were keeping an eye on was following someone who lives in this house."

"Lord William Regal, Ezekiel Jackson, Vladmir Kozlov…" Gail said, saying each name slowly so James could digest it.

"No, I've never heard of any of these people," James said, shaking his head with a frown. "I have no idea why they would be following me."

Stephanie studied him carefully and he resisted the urge to tell her to fuck off. "Did you know an Officer Paul Burchill?" she finally asked.

James shook his head. "Never met him. Name does sound familiar though." He looked at Mark, who was leaning back against the wall casually. "Tell me where I've heard that name before."

"News," Mark replied, his voice as cool as a cucumber. "MCS got to him."

"Aw, I see." James looked back at the cops. "Yeah, I've never even met the guy."

"Right," Stephanie said. "Well our sources say that the reason Regal and his men were watching your house is because you have position of his cousin Paul's German Shepherd Wolfie."

James chuckled at the retarded name before addressing that question. "Listen, this has obviously been some kind of big misunderstanding. My secretary bought Thor for my son as a present. You can check with her if you want." He knew he was putting Julie in a tight spot but she would lie without hesitation, so it was all good.

Gail smiled pleasantly. "Actually do we mind if we speak with your son? We do know that someone from your house was followed as they were walking some dogs-"

"Now might not be the best time," Tom interjected, putting on the smooth bullshitting face that always seemed to work like a charm. "He came down with a pretty bad case of the flu last night. He was up all night puking and he's got a really bad fever, so he's really out of it. You wouldn't get anything out of him that's remotely coherent."

"Alright then," Stephanie said, either buying Tom's line of shit or just realizing she was fighting a lost cause. She looked at James and nodded. "Just so you know, Regal and his men will not be bothering you and your family anymore."

"Good to know," James said, standing up and shaking her hand, wondering whether this was the end of it or she was going to become a bigger problem. _For her sake, she better not. Pretty woman like her…it would be a shame to have to get rid of her._


	19. Keep It Together

Randy felt like an idiot. He really did. He was standing on the street corner, staring at Cooper's house like a fucking lovesick puppy or something. _I really need to move the fuck away from here_ he told himself as his feet refused to move. _James has never liked me and if he sees me out here, he's going to kick my ass. Hell, he'll probably go ahead and blame me for Cooper relapsing if I stick around. _That thought kind of scared him because James was as crazy as they came. If he blamed you for something, you had better run for your life or risk getting torn into little pieces-literally. _I should just go. I really should._ He kept repeating this to himself over and over again and he actually started walking away. But then he had to stop and look back like a fucking idiot. The insane desire to somehow sneak into that house and check to see if Cooper was okay was overwhelming.

_You are an idiot,_ he told himself as he crossed the street and ran around to the back of Cooper's house. _A major major idiot. You are risking a major ass kicking for a guy who has probably never even liked you, even back when the two of you were together. Why does it even matter whether he's okay or not?_

Randy couldn't think of a reasonable answer to that. He really couldn't. He just carefully climbed up to Cooper's window and managed to slip in without getting noticed (well at least he was HOPING he hadn't been noticed). Once he was inside and he had his breathing as quiet as it could get, he noticed that Cooper was chained down to the bed. "Holy-"

Cooper tried to say something even though his mouth was gagged and he began trying to move around and get free from his restraints. Randy just continued to stare for a moment before going over to the bed and taking the bandana out of Cooper's mouth. "What the hell happened here?"

"Dad tied me up so I couldn't go out and use again," Cooper answered. He looked extremely happy to not be gagged anymore. "Then Mark shoved his nasty ass bandana in my mouth so I wouldn't make any noise while Dad talked to the cops."

"Cops? What did you do?"

Cooper gave him an irritated look. "I didn't do anything!" he claimed defensively. "I don't know why the cops were here but I'm pretty fucking sure they weren't here about me." He shook his head and gave Randy a pleading look. "Can you please get me the fuck out of these things?"

Randy grabbed the chains and took a good look at them. "Shit, James made a good investment with these," he said under his breath. "I'm not sure if I can pick the locks or not."

"Can you just try?" Cooper pleaded. He seemed to be really desperate to get the fuck out of there.

Randy hesitated. "What are you going to do if you get out?"

Cooper looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"Are you going to go out and get high again?"

Cooper quickly shook his head. "No way," he said immediately. "No no no. I have no plans to do that."

Randy didn't believe him for a second. He felt bad for that, but he couldn't help it. He knew Cooper well enough to spot the bullshit coming out of his mouth almost immediately. "I really don't think that's a good idea," he said with a sigh.

Cooper blinked in surprise. "Well why the fuck not?"

"Because you can't keep running around and getting high." Randy took a step back because the look on Cooper's face suddenly turned very angry. "I'm saying that because I care."

"Yeah right," Cooper muttered. He was glaring daggers at Randy now. "If you don't want to let me lose, just get the fuck out of here. I have no fucking use for you."

Randy tried to suppress his wince at the words and tone Cooper was using. They both stung a lot more than he cared to admit. "Fine," he said, stuffing the bandana back in Cooper's mouth, almost getting his fingers bit in the process. "I'm out of here then." Refusing to look Cooper in the eyes anymore, he turned around and quickly escaped the room the same way he came in.

…

_Breathe. Just breathe. You can't help Trish at all if you don't breathe._ Jeff tried to take his own advice but just succeeded in getting freaked out because his chest was so tight that he couldn't even begin to get any oxygen into his lungs.

"Here, take this," Glenn said. He practically shoved the inhaler in Jeff's mouth and forced him to use it. "Come on now, we're right here with you. Just relax."

"Why do you have an inhaler?" Matt asked with a raised eyebrow.

Glenn shrugged. "You never know when it'll come in handy."

Jeff took his mouth off of the inhaler, feeling just a tad bit better. "Thanks," he said softly. He clutched at his jeans tightly, wishing he had taken about fifty Xanex before getting on the plane. They were set to land in about ten minutes and his anxiety level was higher than it had ever been. The plan was for him to get off first and separate from Matt and Glenn so he could look like he was alone while the two of them followed him from a safe distance. Raven hadn't actually given him any instructions about what to do or where to go once he got to LA so he was going to have to call Trish's cell phone and attempt to get answers out of the psychopath before he went too far.

"I'm going to be right there with you Jeffro," Matt assured him, wrapping his arm around him and giving him a comforting squeeze. "Alright? You're not going to be alone with Raven any longer than necessary."

Jeff nodded before resting his head against Matt's shoulder. "Matty?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think I'm disgusting now?"

"Of course not," Matt answered immediately. He kissed the top of Jeff's head and held on to him even more tightly. "It doesn't matter what that sick son of a bitch made you do. I still love you the same."

Jeff smiled weakly, relieved to hear that answer. His relief quickly drained away though once the plane actually began to descend. This was it. He was walking out of a frying pan and going straight into the fire. The only question was, was this going to be worth it, or would it turn into a complete and total disaster? Matt and Glenn kept assuring him over and over again that they were going to handle this, but neither of them knew Raven the way he did. The man was as sadistic as they came and he was smart enough to turn the tables on people when they were least expecting it. They were going to be lucky if they came out of this only slightly unscathed.

When the plane landed, Jeff got off first and began making his way through the crowded airport, his shaky hands almost dropping his cell phone about six times as he dialed Trish's number. The thought of her not even being alive was crossing his mind, but he was trying desperately to push it out. He could not allow himself to think about the possibility that he was risking everything for absolutely nothing. He couldn't. He was probably going to have a complete and total breakdown if he did.

"Is that you Jeffey?" Raven asked as soon as he answered the phone.

"Yes," Jeff replied, leaning up against the wall because his legs were shaking too bad to support themselves on their own anymore.

"Are you alone?"

"Yes." Jeff was fighting to keep his voice steady with each answer.

"Really?" Raven chuckled. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Why-"

"Well if you're alone, then why is your stupid brother trying to act like he's not keeping an eye on you right now?"

Jeff froze, literally forgetting to breathe right at that moment. _Raven's never met Matt. He can't know what he looks like…can he?_ He tried to think up of some sort of denial to this accusation but the sound of gunshots interrupted him. "MATT!" he screamed on instinct, dropping the phone and attempting to run towards his brother. A strong pair of arms grabbed him, stuffing a chloroform rag right by his mouth.

"Hey Jeffey," Raven whispered seductively, nipping at Jeff's ear and laughing as Jeff struggled wildly. "Let's go for a little ride."


	20. Know Your Enemy

"Do you think we should say something?" Shane asked, not really bothering to keep his voice down at all. Evan had been staring at his phone for about a half hour now, his expression growing more and more anxious. It was actually starting to really worry the people around them.

"I don't know man," Oscar said with a shrug. He was looking at all of his different masks, trying to decide which ones he wanted to take with him to Mexico. He had three weeks worth of shows down there, which meant Shane was going to be in charge of things at the store. "You think that's a good idea?"

"Well just standing here isn't really doing anything. Maybe we should poke him with a stick or something."

Evan sighed loudly and glared at the both of them. "I can hear you guys you know."

Shane shook his head. "Wow. It's about time. We thought you floated off into your own little world and left us all behind."

Evan blinked and then looked back at his phone. "Something's wrong."

"Obviously. Now can you tell us what?"

Oscar smacked Shane on the chest. "Ask nicely bro."

"I did ask nicely!" Shane claimed. He smacked Oscar back before turning his attention back to Evan. "Please share. You're concerning the grownups kiddo."

"I just did tell you!" Evan snapped angrily.

"But you didn't specify-"

"I know. I can't though because I don't know anything for sure." Evan began to pace back and forth, wringing his hands together and sighing. "It's just a feeling I have. Matt said his brother's friends are in trouble and I just…I don't know…"

"You think Matt's in trouble now too," Oscar guessed.

Evan nodded. "Yeah. I feel like I'm being paranoid but I can't help it. This feeling just won't go away."

Shane walked around from behind the counter so he could wrap his arm around Evan's shoulder. "Hey man, just relax. Whatever kind of trouble Jeff's in, Matt will be able to handle it without problem. He's awesome like that."

…

"Fuck!" Matt yelled, frantically using his good arm and his legs to drag himself behind a pillar, his left shoulder throbbing and bleeding heavily. This wasn't the first time he had ever been shot, but this had been the absolute wrong time for this to happen to him. As soon as the gunfire had started, the entire airport had erupted into chaos. And with that chaos, he had lost track of Jeff completely. "Fuck fuck fuck!" He clutched his shoulder and gritted his teeth, looking around desperately for Jeff. He didn't see his younger brother anywhere, but he did see Glenn desperately pushing his way through the crowd, actually knocking over a couple of old men in his path. "Glenn!" Matt yelled, crouching over and darting out from behind the pillar so he could try to catch up with the larger man. "Glenn!"

If Glenn heard him, he didn't take the time to acknowledge him. He just kept right on going, which really worried Matt. That had to mean that Glenn had seen something that he hadn't. His first thought was that someone had grabbed Jeff. He didn't want to think that but he couldn't help it. It was the thought that while terrifying, was the most likely of scenarios.

The police were swarming in, trying their best to get control over the situation. Matt steered clear of them as best as he could and manage to slip out of the airport, chasing after Glenn, who looked terrifying in his rage.

"Jeff's gone," he growled, making Matt stop right in his track. "Fucking gone!"

Matt shook his head in disbelief. "No," he said, his voice cracking almost immediately. "Glenn no-"

"Yeah. Some fucker nabbed him after the gunfire started." Glenn grabbed a hold of Matt's good arm and started dragging him along. "I didn't get a good look at who actually grabbed him but the mother fucker is going to die."

Matt agreed whole heartedly with that statement but he saw a major roadblock in their path to making that happen. "If we've lost the mother fucker, we have no idea where he's taken Jeff. We're running around blind right now."

Glenn grunted and shook his head. "We know it has to be Raven or someone hired by him that took him. The two of us getting shot at was no coincidence. Raven either knew Jeff wasn't coming alone or he decided not to take any chances."

"But that still doesn't-"

"Someone in this mother fucking town has to know where this bastard is," Glenn growled, making Matt flinch. He had seen Glenn get pissed off before but this was approaching a level that was beyond frightening. "We will find him and we will rip him apart from limb to limb. You understand me?"

Matt nodded, his mind blocking out the pain in his shoulder so he could focus solely on what needed to be done. Jeff had to be found and Raven had to be killed. That was the only option that was acceptable. Of course, it was going to be a shit ton easier to want it than it would be to make it happen. But they would do it, one way or another. Failure was not an option for them. _Jeff, for the love of God, hang on. We're going to get you back and make that son of a bitch pay._

…

"He's so pretty," Daffney cooed as Stevie drove them back to their hideout. She was staring at Jeff, running her hands over hands and acting like she wanted to just start raping him right then and there. "Can we keep him forever and ever boss? Huh? Can we keep him?"

"I'm keeping him," Raven snapped, shooting her a nasty look. "You've got that red headed slut to play with, remember?"

She pouted and folded her arms over her chest. "We could share."

He just glared at her before turning his attention back to staring at Jeff, who was still out from the chloroform His hands were handcuffed behind his back and he had a ball gag shoved into his mouth to keep him from screaming…Raven had forgotten just how damn hot his former slut looked when he was all vulnerable.

"Go FASTER Stevie," Daffney ordered, looking ready to smack the self proclaimed doctor if her command was not obeyed immediately. "I want to go home so I can help kill that blonde slut." She rubbed her hands together and bounced around eagerly. "That stupid whore wants to kill me but she won't. I'll have her head on a stick and her entrails for breakfast."

"Amen," Raven said just to appease the Goth psycho. He ran his hand over Jeff's body, licking his lips in anticipation. He had had many sluts in his life, but none of them had ever compared to Jeff. That was why he hadn't just given the little bitch up when he ran away. Nobody could compare to Jeff. They weren't as tight, they didn't scream as loud, they didn't bleed as pretty…Hardy was a work of art. And now that he had him back, Raven was going to keep him-and kill anyone who tried to take him away.

…

Trish took several deep breaths, trying to deal with the pain that was putting her body through hell. She wished that she was still passed out at the moment. It was too much. Raven's idea of having fun was someone was just beyond sick and demented. "Amy?" she called out, trying to wiggle free from her bonds so she could check on her girlfriend. "Amy?"

There was no response from Amy. Trish began frantically turning her head and saw that Amy was laying in a different spot than she had been before, completely passed out and covered in her own blood. At least Trish hoped Amy was only passed out. She didn't even want to imagine the alternative. For her, there was no life worth living without Amy. Amy was everything to her. Without her, there was nothing. "Baby wake up," she pleaded, struggling harder than ever to get free. "Please wake up. Please baby, open your eyes."

The door opened and Abyss slowly made his way into the room, holding something tightly against his chest. Trish glared at him, not bothering to hide her distrust. While she had seen how scared he seemed to be of Raven and his freaks, the fact that he had done nothing to stop all of this was not going to be forgotten any time soon.

He stared at her for a long moment before slowly revealing the fact that he was holding a first aid kit. She blinked in surprise and he immediately went over to Amy so he could start tending to her. "If you hurt her…" Trish growled, leaving the threat unfinished because she could tell by the way he flinched that he got the message. "I don't suppose you can just untie me and help me and her get to safety, can you?"

He didn't say anything to her. He just gently cleaned off Amy before tending to her wounds. Much to Trish's relief, Amy whimpered softly at being touched. _She's still alive. Thank God._ "You have the power to stop them you know," Trish said, glaring at Abyss angrily.

"I don't," he replied, actually speaking for the first time since she had gotten there.

"You do. You-"

"You don't know anything," he growled, casting a fearful look at the door. It was like he was expecting Raven and the others to come back at any second. "You don't understand."

"Then why don't you explain it to me?"

Abyss shook his head and fell silent. He finished fixing up Amy and then tended to Trish. She glared at him the entire time, hating him for not taking a stand and helping them. "If she dies, I'll find a way to make you pay along with them," she growled, not caring whether that threat was empty or not. "You understand me?"

No response. He just finished with his first aid and gave her an unreadable look before leaving the room. She let out a shaky breath and closed her eyes, trying to keep herself together. She had to think of some sort of plan to get her and Amy out of this and she had to do it fast. Time was definitely almost up for the both of them.


	21. Help

Stephanie let out a long sigh as she rubbed her temples. She had gotten back to work to find out that Regal had been let out of custody while she was gone. His lawyer had shown up and thrown a gigantic bitch fit, throwing out words like "diplomatic immunity" and all kinds of crap like that. They still had Ezekiel Jackson because he was an American citizen and he had actually shot at AJ and Gail, so he wasn't going anywhere any time soon. But the fact that Regal was going to be allowed to run free around the city and potentially cause more problems. "Dave," she called out, leaving her office so she could go face to face with the large detective. "Where the hell is John?"

Dave looked up from his paperwork before he answered. "There was a family emergency. He's not going to be in today."

"And he didn't call to tell me this because…"

"Because he probably forgot. Hell, the only reason I know anything's wrong is because I ran into him as he was leaving his house. Whatever happened, it was really bad."

Stephanie pursed her lips but didn't say anything. She sensed that something was a little off about Dave's story, but she also knew John well enough to know that he wasn't the type to just flake out on the job unless things were really serious. Deciding to leave the subject alone for now, she turned to Gail and AJ, who were talking quietly between themselves. "You get a hold of Lawson's secretary?"

"Yeah," Gail confirmed. "And she says she gave Thor to Connor as a present, just like James claimed."

"We've found nothing to dispute it," AJ added. "I think Regal's made a mistake."

Stephanie took that information in. That seemed like a very likely possibility but there was still something that bothered her about all of this. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but something just seemed to be off with James Lawson. "Alright. Well I want people to keep an eye on that house anyway in case Regal tries anything again."

"You really think he will?" Dave asked. "I mean, one of his men are dead and the other one is in jail and he doesn't strike me as the type to be brave enough to try anything on his own."

"Yeah well, I've learned to expect the unexpected. So I want someone watching the Lawson house and following Regal around until he leaves the city. Is that clear?"

"We're clear," Gail assured her. "Like super clear."

"Good. Now get to work."

…

James cursed under his breath as he looked through the pantry. He was trying to find something to eat but he was having absolutely no luck at it. "Son of a fucking bitch, I told Mark to go to the store," he muttered as he dug around in his pocket for his phone. It wasn't in there and he started cussing even more because of it. "Life fucking hates me," he muttered unhappily. "It fucking hates me." He tried to stop for a minute so he could remember the last place he had seen his phone, but he was too impatient to wait for the memory to come back to him. Continuing to curse under his breath, he emerged from the pantry and found that Connor was now standing right behind him. "Connor? What are you doing up?"

"I'm not sleepies anymore," Connor replied. He rubbed his eyes with a closed up fist and yawned loudly. "And my shoulder still hurts Daddy."

"You want another pain pill?"

"I dunno. It made my tummy all upset last time." Connor leaned forward and rested his head on James's shoulder. "I is not happy Daddy."

"I know you're not." James carefully embraced his son and rubbed his back. "I'm not either."

"Because I got hurted or because Coopy's on the drugs again?"

"Both." James glanced up at the ceiling before looking back at Connor. "Speaking of Cooper, you think we should go check on him?"

"Yeah," Connor said with a nod. "We should. I wants him to be all better."

"Me too." James led Connor upstairs and they entered Cooper's room together. Cooper had his eyes open but he refused to look at them until James came right up to him and took the gag out of his mouth. "How are you feeling?"

"I've been tied up to a bed all day with a shitty bandana stuck in my mouth. How do you think I feel?" Cooper's voice had a nasty tone to it and James was certain that if Cooper's arms would have been free, he would have just gotten punched right in the face.

"Look, I just-"

"Dad jus shut the fuck up and untie me, or I swear to God you'll regret it." Cooper was struggling wildly to get loose now. "I swear to fucking God I'll make you fucking regret it."

James shook his head. "And what's going to happen if I do untie you? Huh? Are you going to run off and get high again? Because I've told you a thousand fucking times I'm not going to ever let that happen again."

"It's not your life Dad! It's mine and I can do what I want!"

James scowled and got right in Cooper's face. "Listen to me," he growled, happy when Cooper actually shut up and made eye contact with him. Hopefully he was actually going to listen now. "I don't give a rat's ass if it's your life. You're my son and I'm not going to let you go back down on this road. So until you get your head out of your ass and stop being idiot, I'm running your shit, you hear me?"

Cooper scowled before letting out a long sigh of defeat. "Can you at least untie me then? My arms are fucking killing me here."

James stared at Cooper for a long moment before very slowly untying him. That proved to be a mistake because Cooper immediately jumped up to his feet and tried to make a break for it. James managed to grab him by the waist and pulled him back, hanging on to him for dear life. "Let me go!" Cooper shouted. He was actually trying to bite James so he could get free. "Let me go!"

James kept his mouth tightly shut and wrapped his legs around Cooper as well as his arms so that he couldn't get away. He should have known something like this was going to happen. "Cooper stop," he pleaded, tightening his grip and shaking his head. "Just stop."

Cooper let out a frustrated scream and continued to struggle, causing James to sigh and keep up his hold on him while Connor watched in fright. Eventually Cooper tired himself out and stopped, but James refused to let him go. He had nearly lost him once to the drugs and he wasn't about to let that happen ever again.

One way or another, this shit was going to end.

…

Because of the chaos at LAX, John's flight to Los Angeles was rerouted and he ended up in Bakersfield instead. He was furious when he first found out but then he heard the reason for the delay and his anger and frustration turned to worry. Had Jeff been hurt during the crossfire? Was he somewhere safe? Did the shooting have anything to do with the kidnapper he was going to confront? All these questions were repeating themselves in his head over and over again and he couldn't make them stop. All he could do was get in his rental car and start heading to Los Angeles. He was trying to get a hold of the LAPD to see if he could get any help from them but so far he had had zero luck. And quite honestly, he wasn't expecting his luck to turn around any time soon. With the way things were looking, he was going to be completely alone during his search for Jeff. He was scared out of his wits at that thought because there was so much that could happen to Jeff while he was running around trying to find him, but he was doing his best to force himself to stay calm because freaking out wasn't going to do anything helpful. He just had to stay calm and keep his cool so he could have a clear mind as he searched.

_Hang on Jeff, I'm coming for you._

…

Jeff felt a way too bright of a light shining down right on his face, which made him groan and turn his head so he could open his eyes without being completely blinded. At first he had absolutely no idea where he was or what had happened to him, but soon it all came rushing back to him. "Oh God no," he groaned, bile rising up to his throat. He closed his eyes and squeezed them tightly shut, praying to whatever God that would listen and hoping with all of his might that this was just a dream. But then he heard the all too familiar laughter and he let out a choked sob. "No…"

"Yes." Raven grabbed Jeff by the chin and squeezed it until he opened his eyes and looked back at the demented man. "There's my slut…what made you think that I was going to just let you go? Huh?'

Jeff didn't answer, which earned him a slap across the face. "I believe I asked you something bitch," Raven growled.

"Please," Jeff whispered, too afraid to even speak in a louder volume. "Please Scotty please-"

Raven smirked coldly at the sound of his real name. "Now now Jeff. You don't get to call me Scotty anymore. You lost that privilege when you upped and left me." He pulled a giant hunting knife out of his back pocket, making Jeff flinch violently. "You forgot who you belonged to. I think I should make sure that doesn't happen again, don't you?"

Jeff immediately shook his head, but the action was all in vein. Raven lifted up Jeff's shirt and began using his knife to carve his name right into Jeff's stomach. Jeff screamed and begged for Raven to stop, but he didn't dare try to struggle too much. He was too afraid of the possibility of Raven stabbing him right then and there to attempt it. When Raven was done, he licked the blood off the blade before placing a soft kiss on Jeff's lips. "Oh Jeffey…you and I are going to have LOTS of fun together."


	22. Scream

**A/N: **Special shout out to Debwood-1999 for giving me a great idea to use in this story. It definitely was appreciated.

…

"Are you sure we're going to find out anything here?" Matt asked as he followed Glenn into the seedy bar. They had been to a couple places like this already and had found out next to nothing. The first place had led to no answers and the second one only was able to tell them that the bartender here could maybe know something, but it was a big maybe. It was driving Matt insane and pissing Glenn off, which was not a good combination. Heads were going to start rolling if they didn't get answers soon.

Glenn just grunted and kept going, which made Matt sigh and roll his eyes. He hated it when the larger man got all non-verbal on him. It was very frustrating.

It felt like all eyes were on them as they headed over to the bartender. Matt kept his gaze straight ahead, trying to act like he didn't have an injured shoulder at all. His years in the Murder City Saints had taught him to never reveal the fact that he was injured. Exposing weaknesses was dangerous. He knew from experience that it was not fun to have someone see it and try to use it against him.

"What can I get you gentlemen tonight?" the bartender asked when they got up to him. He was a guy in his late thirties and he looked like a sex offender that the Saints had offed not long after Matt and Jeff had joined up with them.

"Is your name Martin Wright?" Glenn asked. His mismatched eyes were narrowed and the bartender had the sense to take a step back.

"What if it was? What is it to you?"

"We're looking for someone," Matt replied. "We were told you might know where he is."

Martin stared at them uncertainly. "Well I know a lot of people, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to help you."

"Oh believe me Marty, you better be able to help us," Glenn growled. "Or we're going to have a problem."

Matt watched Martin gulp nervously before speaking up again. "His name is Raven. He-"

"You don't want to fuck with him," Martin said immediately. He took another step back and started shaking his head frantically. "That's trouble you don't want."

"Oh believe me, we want it," Glenn growled. He leaned forward, scaring the shit out of Martin. "That weasel took something very precious to us and we're going to get it back."

Matt leaned forward, deciding to play a little good cop before Glenn turned into batshit crazy cop. "Look man, if you have any idea where he is, just tell us and we'll leave. Nobody will know you ever tipped us off." He rolled his eyes as Martin continued to look hesitant. "Believe me, I'd just tell us and get it over with if I was you. My friend here is two seconds away from coming over there and ripping your spleen out."

"And that's not an exaggeration Mr. Wright," Glen said in his most sadistic voice. Even Matt got scared and he had heard it several times before this. "I really need another spleen in my collection. I haven an odd number and it drives me nuts. It's too uneven for my taste. You know what I'm saying?"

Martin looked like he was about to piss himself right then and there. "Look, I've heard things, okay? Mostly rumors but I did see him and his little sidekicks go into an old abandoned house on East 7th Street when I was driving home from work the other night. I don't know if they're even still there, but that place would be a great hideout for them."

Glenn and Matt exchanged looks. Their bullshit detectors weren't going off, so the chances of this guy being truthful with them were high. "Alright then," Matt said with a nod. "Thank you Martin. That was very helpful." He grabbed Glenn by the arm and tugged on it. "Let's go."

Glenn glared at Martin a little bit more before following Matt out of the bar. "If this doesn't pan out, I'm coming back and putting my fist through his skull."

Matt grinned and shook his head. "Okay then. Whatever you say Glenn." He wasn't about to argue with Glenn about that. That was just an unnecessary risk to his health.

…

Raven watched Jeff's face as he screamed in pain, his cock getting unbelievably hard by the sound. He was straddling the younger man's waist and was lighting match after match, dropping them down all over Jeff's chest and stomach. The burn marks contrasted sharply with Jeff's pale skin and it made Raven feel like a true artist.

"His screams are orgasmic," Daffney said with an insane giggle. She was sitting by the bed, not only watching the scene in front of her but she was recording Jeff's screams for her own personal use. Raven had been a little reluctant to let her do it at first because he was selfish when it came to his property, but she had begged so nicely and he had decided to be a nice guy for a change.

"They are, aren't they?" Raven said with a nod. He ran his fingers over Jeff's face, leaning down to lick up the tears. Jeff shuddered noticeably and Raven grinned, loving the salty taste that filled his tongue. "He's always been my favorite bitch." He kissed Jeff on the mouth before sitting back up. "You want him to scream some more?"

Daffney nodded eagerly. "Yes! Make him scream! Make him bleed! Yes yes yes!"

Raven grinned. Her enthusiasm was contagious. "Come on Jeff, let's play," he said. He grabbed his knife and cut Jeff's shirt off. "Oh baby, are you going to cry now Jeffy? You going to cry like a big baby?"

Jeff shuddered again and shook his head. "Scotty please, don't-"

Raven smacked Jeff across the face, making his head rock violently to the side. "Don't call me that," he growled angrily. "I'm Master, you understand me?"

Jeff whimpered loudly. "No…" He screamed loudly as Raven grabbed his hair and pulled back on it. "Ow ow ow please…"

"Are you trying to start an argument with me Jeff?" Raven asked dangerously. He put the blade right up to Jeff's face. Huh? Are you going to argue with me?"

Jeff's eyes widened and he quickly shook his head.

"What was that now? I didn't understand you."

"No Master," Jeff said reluctantly. "I don't want to argue with you."

Raven grinned. "Good boy." He rewarded Jeff with a kiss on the mouth. "There's the boy I know and love." He set the knife aside and removed Jeff's jeans. Jeff cried as he did it, unable to even attempt to stop this because his hands were tied above his head. "How much have you whored yourself out since you've been away? Huh?"

"I haven't-"

"Lies," Raven hissed. He made a long, deep cut on Jeff's thigh, making him cry out in pain. "Fucking liar…I know you're a slut." He wrapped his hand around the blade of the knife before shoving the handle into Jeff's tight heat. Jeff screamed loudly, which made Daffney happy and Raven feel a sadistic sense of pleasure. "Oh baby, you're so sensitive. That's not even the worse thing I can do to you." He pulled the handle out and turned the knife back around, teasing pushing the blade right into the tight pucker before changing his mind. "Nah. You're probably too loose as it is. I don't want to make things worse." He tossed the knife aside and worked on freeing his cock from the confines. "Ssshhh…don't cry Jeffey. This shouldn't hurt too much." He positioned himself between Jeff's legs and slammed inside of him at full force, groaning at the tightness that made him want to cum right then and there. "Holy shit," he groaned as Jeff screamed. "You're not as loose as I thought you would be." He chuckled and pulled almost all the way out before slamming back in. "Hmmm…I like it. I really do."

Jeff just sobbed and cried the entire time and Daffney recorded each and every single sound he made, barely containing her giggles as she did so. When Raven was on the cusp of finishing, he pulled out and stroked himself until he came, effectively marking his territory. "Mine," he growled as he kissed Jeff possessively. "Isn't that right slut?"

Jeff sniffled and nodded reluctantly. "Yes Master. I'm all yours."


	23. Find the Real

After going off for a few hours and trying to take his mind off of things, Randy found himself lurking around outside of Cooper's house. He didn't know why he was coming back there. What was the point even? Cooper was just going to get pissed at him if he went in and tried to help. He should just forget all about this bullshit and go do something else. Despite telling himself that though, he couldn't do it. Something was compelling him to stay near Cooper's place and watch from the shadows, trying to work up the courage to sneak back in there to see the younger man. Did he care more about Cooper than he realized? It was sure seeming that way. But he wasn't about to dare think that anything could come from it. Cooper was way too messed up right now to worry about anything but himself and even when he got back on track, Randy didn't have high hopes about anything seriously coming from his feelings. He learned a long time ago that once you wanted someone, you were doomed to never get them. It was just the way shit went.

"Fuck it," he muttered under his breath. He started to try to take off when a car pulled up right behind him. "Damn it," he muttered his breath when he saw who was in there.

"You know Orton, if I didn't know better, I would think you were some sort of creeper," Tom said as he leaned his head out his open window. Mark was in the passenger's seat, looking grumpy and pissed off as usual.

Randy shook his head. "I'm just passing by. I'm not-"

"Actually we could use you," Tom interrupted, which set Mark off.

"Oh yes, because that's going to go over well," Mark said sarcastically. "I'm sure James will be just thrilled to have someone who was once PART of the problem back babysitting the boy with said problem."

"Well who else is there?" Tom asked irritably. "The others are gone and we've got a job to do. The two of us can't fucking do it ourselves. We need James and Connor for this which means we need someone to go babysit Cooper. Do you see any other volunteers besides Orton?"

"Technically I'm not even a volunteer…" Randy tried to object. He did not feel like getting murdered on sight by James. His objections died though when he saw the glare that Tom was giving him. The look was actually quite scary and was a reminder that Tom could be just as scary as any of the Lawsons if he really wanted to.

"Randy?" Tom said quietly.

"Yeah?" Randy said with a wince.

"You're the babysitter. Deal with it."

Randy sighed in defeat. He knew this was an argument that he wasn't going to win so he was just going to give up now. "You're keeping James from killing me then."

Tom chuckled and nodded. "Don't worry. You being alive will annoy him and any chance I can help irritate him is one I will take."

…

When John arrived in Los Angeles, he received a call from Dave, who gave him the number of Melina Perez, an old friend of his who was a detective for the LAPD. John was immediately skeptical because just like in his department, there was a lot of corruption within the Los Angeles police department. But Dave was his friend and if he said that Melina was on the level, then she was on the level until proven otherwise. John dialed her cell phone number and she answered it after the second ring. Dave had gotten a hold of her himself so she was expecting John's call.

"Officially I have to tell you that my department is doing everything it can to find the girls taken by Raven, Stevie and Daffney," Melina said once the pleasantries had been exchanged. The disappearance of Trish Stratus, Amy Dumas, Candice Michelle and Ashley Massaro was ruled a kidnapping based on evidence at the scene and they were the only people who had disappeared in the city that matched Jeff's age and any one could be assumed to be the friend he was trying to save. "We're investigating every lead-"

"I don't doubt that," John said. "But please save met he company line. I need to find Jeff and I need to find him now. For all I know, he's been taken himself."

"For his sake I hope he's not," Melina said darkly. "Scott Levy-or Raven, as he prefers to be called-has been in and out of prison and mental institutions since he was a teenager. Currently he's on the run from three rape charges all the way from New York-"

"Oh fuck," John muttered.

"-and his long time companion Steven Richards is allegedly a clueless putz, but he allegedly facilitated the escape of one Daffney and somebody named Chris Parks from an insane asylum, although I don't even know if he's still with the group or not. What I'm getting at though, is that these guys are insanely dangerous. I don't think you should be running around looking for them on your own."

"Yeah well I don't have time to wait for backup," John said. "Can you please just give me some sort of clue as to where they would hide out at? If you were a crazy psycho, where would you hide out?"

Melina paused for a moment to think about that. "There are some houses on East 7th Street that are abandoned. But-"

John didn't wait to hear more. He hung up and started driving like a maniac. He didn't know LA very well but he was going to find East 7th Street as fast as possible. If Jeff wasn't there he would tear the entire city apart to find him and nothing-and he meant NOTHING was going to stop him.

…

"No no no no!" James yelled as Randy hid behind Tom and Mark leaned against the doorway looking completely exasperated. "This is NOT happening!" James went on, acting like someone had just asked him to chop off his own nuts and feed them to the dogs. "How do any of you think this is a good idea?"

"Because we don't have a lot of time or options," Tom snapped. "Regal's supposed to be heading back to England by midnight tonight. The only reason he's not gone yet is because he's obsessed with avenging his damn family. Now if you want him dead-"

"Oh I want him dead. Believe me, I fucking want his ass rotting in the damn ground," James snarled. "But Cooper-"

"Cooper's a fucking mess Lawson," Mark interrupted. "We all know this. But as long as he's tied down, Orton can stay here and make sure he doesn't get out.

James scowled and looked over at Connor. "What do you want to do?"

"You're asking him?" Tom said with a snort, which made James glare at him and Randy even more nervous.

"How are you going to keep him from killing me if you get yourself killed instead?" he hissed.

Tom shook his head. "I can take care of myself, don't you worry about that."

James snorted loudly. "Keep talking like that Tommy boy and we'll be testing that theory."

Connor looked back and forth between everyone else in the room before his gaze finally settled on James for more than a couple of seconds. "I wanna get the bad people who shot me," he announced. "Coopy's cranky and I don't wanna be around him no more. I wanna go make boom booms."

"Out of the mouths of psychotic giant man child babes," Tom said under his breath. Mark got a chuckle out of that and even Randy's lips twitched into a grin. James just sighed and finally nodded reluctantly.

"Fine." James glared daggers at Randy. "If anything-and I mean ANYTHING-happens to Cooper, I'm impaling you on a stick and roasting you over a fire. You hear me?"

Randy winced because he could tell that James was deadly serious. The eldest Lawson was a lot of things and fiercely protective of his boys was at the top of that list. "Yes," he said quickly. "I hear you."

"Damn right you better." James stormed off into the other room and Connor, Tom and Mark followed him, leaving Randy by himself. He stayed where he was for a minute before deciding to go upstairs to Cooper's room, where the detoxing man was tied up and sulking.

"What are you doing back?" Cooper asked when he noticed that Randy had walked in.

"I'm uh…in charge of you while your family goes and does bad things," Randy said sheepishly. He grabbed the chair at Cooper's desk and sat down in it.

Cooper groaned loudly. "So now I constantly need a babysitter? That's just great. Really, this is fucking fantastic."

"Yeah well what did you expect?" Randy asked with a shake of his head. "Come on Cooper, you know this shit has to stop. This is clearly gone way beyond being out of control. You're fucking tied down to your own bed because nobody can trust you not to go off and fucking snort your weight in coke. Doesn't that say anything to you?"

Cooper scowled but it didn't last long. The reality of his situation was slapping him in the face and he couldn't hide from the truth any more. "I'm fucked up," he admitted in defeat. "Really really fucked up." He sighed loudly and looked at Randy with bleary eyes. "I need help."

Randy nodded. "Yup. You really do. Maybe we should take you to-"

"No rehab," Cooper refused. "That place is going to make me nuts. I quit before by myself and I can do it again." He looked over at Randy and sighed unhappily. "You're not going to untie me even though I realized all of this, are you?"

Randy shook his head. "Sorry. I can't take the risk. Your dad threatened to burn me alive if something happened to you and he meant it."

"Yeah…he's a funny guy like that."


	24. Rescue Me

Jeff shivered as he laid there on the floor, his body racked in pain and absolutely terrified out of his mind. He didn't know how much more of this he could take. Raven had been torturing him for God knows how long now, getting his shits and giggles in quite nicely. Jeff had begged and begged for mercy but Raven hadn't listened to a word of it. He had done every sick and twisted thing that had popped into his head and now he had thrown Jeff down on the floor and had dragged Trish and Amy into the room so he could do whatever it was that he had planned next. Trish was trying to fight still but she was tied up pretty tightly and Stevie had a pretty good hold on her as well. Amy made a few weak attempts to get loose but whatever "fun" Daffney had been having with her had left her completely exhausted. Daffney herself was straddling Amy's lap, her I-pod half sticking out of her pocket and both ear buds were firmly in her ears. Whatever she was listening to was something she was really enjoying because she kept giggling loudly and swaying too it. There was also some large guy in a black mask named Abyss that didn't seem like he wanted to be there at all but he was the least of Jeff's concerns. He was too busy focusing on Raven, who was smirking as he stood front and center in front of all of them.

"Well…I have to say, these past few days have been quite fun." He chuckled and ran his fingers over Trish's face and Trish looked like she just wanted to bite them clean off right then and there. "I've got to play with some new sluts and uh…get reacquainted with some old ones." He gave Jeff a lecherous look and Jeff just wanted to shrivel up and die right then and there. He could not take much more of this shit.

"But as fun as this has been, I think it's time to trim off the uh…how should I say it? The fat?" Raven chucked insanely. "The ones who-Daffney! Are you even listening to me?"

Daffney just giggled insanely and continued to sway her body until Raven ripped out one of her ear buds and glared at her. "Hey!" she objected, giving him a very cross look. "I was listening to that!"

Raven's eyes narrowed and Jeff honestly thought he was going to punch her in the face for that. Raven was not known for putting up with insolence. But after a very uncomfortable moment, he let it go and resumed with what he was saying. "Now Daff, I know that you've uh…become attached to the redheaded bitch but-"

"You aren't taking her from me," Daffney growled, actually scaring Jeff with how deranged she became the instant she thought Raven was taking something away from here. "She's mine! MINE!"

"She's NOT yours!" Trish growled, trying to lunge at Daffney but unable to do it. "You hear me?"

"Shut up you," Daffney snarled. "Amy is mine. You're just jealous because you can't get her no more." She laughed at the look on Trish's face before burying her face in Amy's chest and licking it, angering Trish even more than before.

Raven rolled his eyes, his expression making it hard to tell whether he was annoyed or slightly amused by the argument that was taking place. "Whatever you say my darling Scream Queen." He patted Daffney on the top of her head before sending a rather nasty look towards Trish. "Now you…well you've been nothing but a little fucking cunt to me since day one. And I have to tell you honey, I really have not appreciated it one little bit."

"Fuck you," Trish snapped.

Raven laughed at that. "Fuck me? No honey, fuck you." He pointed to her and glared at Stevie. "Kill her."

"No!" Jeff shouted. He tried to force himself up to his feet so he could put a stop to this. It was one thing for him to suffer through this but he couldn't let anyone else die at Raven's hand. "Raven please! Don't-"

"Shut up!" Raven barked. He kicked Jeff directly in the ribs, causing the younger man to cry out in pain and collapse back down to the ground. "The sluts don't get a say in this." He glared at Stevie again, this time pissed that his orders hadn't been followed through with already. "I said kill her Richards!"

"Okay okay!" Stevie quickly said, not wanting to risk Raven's wrath any more than he already had. He reached into his pocket for a weapon but suddenly that was when Abyss grabbed Stevie by the arm and shook his head vehemently.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Raven growled dangerously. Despite the fact that Abyss was much bigger than he was, Raven got right in his face and Abyss seemed to be intimidated as hell. He stood his ground though, shaking his head keeping his grip very tight on Stevie so he couldn't hurt Trish.

"You're not killing her."

"Oh we're not?" Raven almost laughed at that. "I think you've lost control of your patient here Richards."

"I think so too," Stevie said, wincing badly because Abyss was squeezing his arm so hard."

"I think this calls for a little shock treatment, don't you agree?" Raven pulled a taser out of the pocket of his leather jacket, laughing as Abyss flinched violently at the sight of it."

…

Matt and Glenn carefully peeked into the window of the house, both of them relieved to see that Jeff was still alive but angry at the condition that he was in. "Mother fucker is going to die," Glenn growled.

Matt nodded in agreement. There was no way Raven was escaping death but being the logical person that he was, he recognized the fact that they were going to have problems if they just marched in there. They were outnumbered and even though it was just by a slight number, Matt wasn't about to take any chances because it was his brother's life on the line. "We need a plan."

Glenn smirked, actually sending a chill up Matt's spine because it was so evil. "Don't worry. I've got one."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Follow me. I know exactly what to do."

…

"Abyss please!" Trish pleaded, trying to plead with the older man as he backed away from Raven. "Don't be scared of him. Your fear is giving him the power-"

"He's got good reason to be afraid," Raven said with a smirk. "Such a good fucking reason." He acted like he was going to go after Abyss with the taser but as soon as the big man jumped back, he used it against Trish instead, making her scream and pain and Jeff and Amy yell in horror. What it did to Abyss though, was not something Raven had anticipated. Reacting in a pure fit of rage, he literally tossed Stevie all the way across the room (he landed right in the front hallway right by the door) and grabbed Raven by the throat, shaking him violently. Raven immediately tasered Abyss right in the neck, sending the monster of a man down to his knees. He started to say something again, but this time a truck crashing through the front door interrupted him. The truck hit Stevie and pinned him up against the wall, making him scream in pain. Much to Jeff's relief though, it was Matt and Glenn coming to the rescue and they shot Stevie in the head just to make sure he was dead.

"Son of a bitch…" Raven immediately grabbed Jeff and started using him as a shield so he wouldn't be shot as he made his escape.

"Let him go!" Matt yelled, both him and Glenn pointing their weapons at Raven but not shooting because they didn't have a clear shot. "You fucking son of a bitch! Let him go!"

"Say pretty please," Raven taunted. He laughed and dragged Jeff out of the room and putting a knife to his throat as soon as they were out of sight of the others. "Scream and you fucking die bitch."

…

"GET BACK HERE!" Matt screamed, going apeshit because Raven still had Jeff. He started to chase after the retreating psychopath only to be too distracted to realize Daffney was making a move until she was right on him, trying to claw and bite his face off.

"What the-"

"Glenn just go!" Matt ordered while desperately trying to get Daffney off of him. "Get Jeff! Now!"

Glenn didn't hesitate to leave Matt to deal with Daffney alone for Jeff's better good, which was the only way Matt would have it. Matt tried just pushing and prying Daffney off of him but he quickly abandoned that in favor of falling back on to the couch and getting his foot up so he could kick her off. She fell to the floor with a loud thump and as she tried to get back up to lunge at him again, he raised his gun and fired it at her twice. Both bullets hit her directly in the chest and she was dead almost instantly, her body collapsing in a heap on the floor.

"Holy fuck…" Matt only took a few seconds to catch his breath before jumping back up to his feet and taking off. He had to catch up with Raven and he had to do it now before anything else happened to Jeff.

…

"Let me go," Jeff whimpered as Raven dragged him down the empty street. Raven still had the knife to his throat and was too hidden behind him for Glenn to do anything but follow along and make sure he didn't get away.

"Shut up," Raven growled. "I don't want to fucking hear it."

"You know, I really recommend letting him go," Glenn said. "The longer you keep this shit up, the longer you give me to think of painful ways to kill you."

"Oh yeah?" Raven chuckled and shook his head. "If you want me that badly, take your best shot. I-"

"Freeze!"

Jeff's eyes just about popped out of his head, he was that shocked. "John?"

"What in the hell is this?" Raven asked as John pointed the gun at him.

"Let him go and get down on the ground!" John ordered. He was glaring daggers at Raven, who showed no signs of letting Jeff go. There was really no reason to. As long as he had Jeff, he retained some kind of control. He was using Jeff yet again for his own gain and Jeff was so sick of it that he couldn't take it. He honestly could not fucking take it.

Throwing caution to the wind and not even caring that Raven could possibly slit his throat, Jeff kicked his foot back as hard as he could. He managed to catch the older man in the between the legs and broke free, diving down to the ground as John, without any kind of hesitation or thought about what kind of trouble could come from it, fired one shot, catching the enraged Raven right between the eyes and making his brains splatter against the cold cement.


	25. Here Comes the Boom

"What the hell are we going to do about this mess?" Glenn asked Matt, forcing him away for Jeff so they could talk on their own. He understood that Matt wanted to fuss over Jeff; he wanted to do the same thing himself. But at the moment they had really big fish to fry. They had three dead bodies, two other people besides Jeff that really needed a hospital, a car crashed into a house and no way to really explain all of it. Of course, if it was just him and Matt that were around at the moment, this would all be much more simple. It was the third wheel that had suddenly showed up and shot Raven that had him worried.

"Who the fuck cares what we do with it?" Matt asked, trying to get around Glenn so he could go back to Jeff. "We'll do what we'll always do and-"

"Matt that guy over there is a cop!" Glenn hissed, keeping his voice down so they wouldn't be overheard. "He's a cop from our home town for Christ's sakes!"

"He is?" Matt said, eyeing Cena warily.

"Yeah. Detective John Cena. He's one of the only fucking good cops in our entire fucking city!"

"Well what the hell is he doing here?" Matt asked. "This is like majorly out of his jurisdiction."

Glenn studied Cena carefully, the way the younger man was all over Jeff not being lost on him. "Well I'm not a detective myself but my conclusions are going towards that Cena here has feelings towards your brother."

Matt's eyes just about popped out of his head. "What?" he said in disbelief. He looked to Cena and Jeff and noticed the exact same thing that Glenn had. There was definitely all kinds of vibes coming from them and his jaw dropped in shock. "No way…"

Glenn let out a big sigh and shook his head. "Yup." He definitely did not approve of this at all. Cena was a cop and Jeff was one of them-one of the Saints. That was a disaster waiting to happen. Cena was one of the people looking to bring them down. What was Jeff thinking? Did he not realize Cena was a cop and how much danger he was putting them all in?

"What the hell do we do about this?" Matt asked helplessly.

Glenn could only shake his head. "I have no idea. But we better think of something soon because we're fucked this all goes too far."

…

Jeff clung to John for dear life, burying his face into the bigger man's chest while shaking uncontrollably. Honestly, the last thing he had ever expected to see was John coming to his aid. He didn't even expect to survive this, so he had not given a truly serious thought as to seeing John again. The fact that he was not only still alive but John had come for him and was now holding him in his arms was very overwhelming. "Thank you," he managed to croak out quietly. "I didn't think-"

"That what? I wouldn't come for you?"

"It's not like we really know each other all that well."

John shook his head and hugged Jeff even more tightly. "That don't matter. I was worried sick about you so here I am." He smoothed down Jeff's hair before kissing the top of his head. "We need to get you to a hospital." He didn't want to imagine the kinds of things Jeff had been through but he was doing it anyway. His mind wouldn't listen to him and was just playing every ugly scenario it could and it was driving him crazy.

"Trish and Amy have to go too," Jeff said, glancing back towards the direction of the house he had been kept captive in. "And we have to clean up this mess-"

"Clean up?" John said, frowning in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"The bodies-"

"There's one body Jeff," John said, motioning towards Raven.

Jeff shook his head, realizing John had never gone into the house so he hadn't seen Daffney and Stevie. "There's two more. Raven's friends got killed in the chaos when Matt and Glenn came to rescue me."

"Shit." John ran his hand through his hair and shook his head. He had not known about that at all. One body was one thing but three? Even with the situation being what it was, he still felt uneasy about trying to explain it all away because this wasn't his town. These cops weren't ones he knew. Sure he had Melina backing him up but he didn't know how much weight she truly carried. "How can we hide this though? We can't do it Jeff. I can talk to the people-"

Jeff shook his head fearfully. There was no way more cops could be allowed to get involved. Absolutely no way. That was just too much of a risk for them to take. "No. John please, let's just take care of this. We can hide this we can. It'll be easy and nobody will have to know."

John stared at Jeff in disbelief, unsure about what to do. Part of him wanted to cave because he didn't want Jeff to beg this much but his sense of moral duty was getting to him. "Jeff there are people who know I'm here looking for you. What am I supposed to say if I just show up at the hospital with you?"

"That you got to me when Raven was gone!" Jeff replied. "We can hide all this evidence and nobody will ever know."

"Jeff we can't hide something like this."

"Yes we can. People go missing and never turn up ever again all the time."

"But they're dead. If they turn up we can get in trouble then because-"

"They won't turn up," Jeff assured him. "We can make sure of that."

"Jeff-" Jeff cut him off with a kiss and he kissed back eagerly, ignoring the stares of Matt and Glenn as he did so.

"Please," Jeff begged, looking at him with big wide eyes. "For me?"

John didn't think this was a good idea. His conscious was telling him not to go along with it because it was wrong. Despite of himself though, he found himself nodding along to what Jeff said. He couldn't refuse him. For whatever reason, refusing him didn't feel like an option. It was kind of scary because he had never felt that way around another person before but he was going with it.

"Okay," John reluctantly agreed.

"Okay?" Jeff said, making sure he had heard correctly. He breathed a loud sigh of relief as John nodded and then he looked over at Matt and Glenn and nodded, signaling to them that they had a lot of work that needed to get done as fast as possible. The sooner this was all over, the better.

…

Regal leaned his head back against his seat, pinching the bridge of his nose as he tried to sort through his thoughts. This whole thing had not gone the way he had intended for them to go at all. Zeke and Kozlov were dead and Katie's and Paul's deaths were still not avenged. And now he was being whisked away to the airport in a limo and he didn't want to go. He had had revenge in his grasp and it had been snatched from him and that was not acceptable. He had to regroup and come back stronger than ever. Failure was definitely not an option.

…

Connor giggled as he bounced up and down impatiently. He, Tom, James and Mark were watching the limo stop at the intersection. What Regal didn't know was that they had gotten to his limo before he did and had planted a whole bunch of explosives on the bottom of it set to go off whenever they chose them to go off. "How much longer Daddy?" he asked eagerly. "Huh? Can we do it soon? Can we can we can we?"

"We'll do it soon," James promised. "Very very soon." He looked over at Mark, who was the one holding the detonator. "Don't make the poor boy wait too long Marky Mark. We don't have all night."

Mark gave him an irritated look. "I'll push the button when I want to push the button Lawson"

"But we want you to press it now Marky!"

Tom rolled his eyes at James. "You know, it's not cute when you whine like a five year old."

"Fuck you mother fucker. I'll come over there and fucking lynch you like a bitch."

"I'd like to see you try."

"Guys-" Mark grunted.

"Bored now!" Connor announced. He snatched the detonator out of Mark's hands and pressed the button, laughing hysterically as the limo exploded so violently that it flipped upside down and burned for the entire neighborhood to see.


	26. Sweet Emotion

"Can you untie me now?" Cooper whined, shifting around uncomfortably on the bed. He was really really tired of being tied up like this. His body was stiff, he didn't feel very good and he was just plain restless. "Come on, I'll protect you from Dad."

Randy shook his head. Cooper had been going on and on for awhile now but he couldn't risk it. Even Cooper couldn't provide sufficient protection from the wrath of James. He knew James didn't even like him to begin with so he wasn't about to risk untying Cooper and then having it be a trick all along pulled by Cooper so he could go out and get more drugs. That would lead to his certain death for sure.

Cooper pouted his lips and gave Randy his most pleading look. "Come on, I have to take a piss. What do you want me to do, piss all over the bed?"

Randy wrinkled his nose. That was definitely not what he wanted to happen. "Okay fine. But if this is some sort of trick-"

"It's not. How can you ask me that?"

Randy just gave Cooper an incredulous look. "Do you really want me to answer that?" He waited until Cooper reluctantly shook his head before untying him very very slowly. He knew that this could majorly backfire on him but he took the chance anyway. Thankfully it seemed to pay off because Cooper made no immediate attempts to bolt. He let Randy help him get up and assist him to the bathroom because his legs were so stiff. "You want me to go in there with you?" Randy asked after they had reached the bathroom door.

Cooper shook his head. "Nah man. If I can't take a piss by myself at this point in my life then I should just like roll over and die because shit is much harder than that."

Randy let out a chuckle at that before letting Cooper go into the bathroom alone. There wasn't a window in there so it wasn't like he could make an escape. He felt bad for even thinking that Cooper would do that but he had to be realistic. Just because Cooper seemed to have woken up and realize that the shit he was putting into his system wasn't good for him didn't mean that epiphany had been truly realized. Until he was absolutely, positively one hundred percent sure that Cooper wasn't going to pull something he needed to be realistic and keep his guard up.

A few minutes Cooper emerged from the bathroom looking slightly better than he had before he had gone in there. "You're really not going to tie me back down, are you?" he asked. "I mean come on, do you really think I need it?"

Randy shrugged. "I don't know. What I do know is your dad left you here tied up and if he comes back and sees that you're not it's MY head that's going on the stick."

"It won't go on a stick," Cooper assured him.

"Sure it would. He hates me."

"He does not hate you. He just…violently dislikes you."

Randy chuckled humorlessly at that. "Oh yes, because that is so much better."

Cooper grinned and leaned back against the wall. "You're cute when you're being overdramatic."

"I'm cute all the time," Randy countered.

"Not as cute as me." Cooper was trying to go all in with this banter because it was distracting. He wasn't feeling that well at all; the withdrawal might have been giving him a slight break for a tiny bit but he knew that it was far from over.

Randy snorted. "Oh please. There's no way you're cuter than me."

"You sure about that?" Randy's arrogance never ceased to amaze Cooper.

"Yes," Randy replied without hesitation. He always had prided himself on his looks and that wasn't about to change any time soon. "Come on Cooper, I mean I know you have the whole emo boy tortured boy look going on but me…" he stopped to motion towards himself "I'm what everyone gets themselves off to when they're sleeping in their beds."

Cooper wrinkled his nose. That was a little too over the top for his taste. "You've got issues Orton."

"Not as many as you do Lawson." Randy was right about that and they both knew it. "Now come on. Let me tie you up again until Daddy Dearest gets home."

Cooper shook his head. He had absolutely no intention of being tied up again. He had been in that position for way too long and was in no hurry to go back to it. "You're too eager to get me tied up again," he said, going down the joking path in order to try to distract Randy from tying him up all over again. "And I don't think it's because you're afraid of Dad; you just want me at your mercy."

Randy opened his mouth to deny that but then realized he couldn't. The thought of having Cooper at his complete and total mercy was such a fucking turn-on that he could barely stand it. He ran his tongue over his bottom lip and just stared at his ex for a moment before closing the distance between them and pressing his lips against his. Cooper's eyes widened in surprise but he didn't try to push Randy away. In fact he not only kissed him back but deepened it, shoving his tongue so far down Orton's throat that he nearly choked on it.

"COOPY! COOPY COOPY COOPY!"

"Oh you have to be kidding me!" Randy lamented as he and Cooper reluctantly broke apart. "Why is he always such a fucking cock blocker?"

"Because he's Connor," Cooper replied. That pretty much explained everything right there.

"Coopy! Coopy! I made a boom boom Coopy! I did I did I-" Connor stopped in mid-sentence as he skidded to a halt and saw that Cooper was not only not tied to the bed anymore but was also standing really really close to Randy. "What ya doin' Coopy?"

"Nothing," Cooper replied quickly.

"Why are you out of bed?"

"Because I had to go to the bathroom."

"Oh. Did Orton go potty with you?"

"No. Now tell me more about these boom booms."

Connor opened his mouth, seemingly about to start going on and on about his boom booms but then a devilish gleam entered his eyes and he changed course at the last second. "DADDY! RANDY IS TOUCHING COOPER INAPPROPRIATELY IN THE BATHROOM!"

"CONNOR!" Cooper yelled angrily.

"Oh Christ!" Randy exclaimed in horror. He was going to die. He was going to fucking die and there was going to be nothing he could do to stop it.

The sound of James barreling up the stairs soon reached their ears and Cooper shoved Randy into the bathroom and closed the door so he could hide in there. "You are so fucking dead!" Cooper growled at Connor.

Connor cackled and jumped back as Cooper attempted to grab at him. "Missed me missed me now you gotta kiss me!" He blew a raspberry at Cooper before skipping off, passing James as he rounded the corner. "Get him Daddy! Get him good!"

"Don't encourage him!" Mark snapped. He and Tom were following close behind him, intending to stop James from really slaughtering Orton. James had the tendency to overreact when it came to Randy being around Cooper. Randy had left a pretty bad first impression on James by being a moron in general and James held the belief that Randy fed the problems Cooper already had and made them worse. But what he didn't seem to realize was that Cooper was not only an adult, but he was an adult who fed his own problems just fine all by himself.

"Dad…" Cooper winced at the look on James's face. "You're being crazy-"

"Am not!" James denied as he searched around for Randy. "I always knew that fucker was bad news. I'll fucking KILL Tom for bringing him here."

"Hey he was already around stalking your kid!" Tom said defensively. "I just thought he could be useful while he was at it!"

Mark shook his head as James shot Tom a withering glare. "I don't think now is the time for you to speak."

Tom rolled his eyes. "I've never been and will never be scared of James-"

"I think I can change that," James said nastily.

Cooper shook his head. "Dad come on, stop it. You're being ridiculous. Randy let me up so I could go to the bathroom, nothing else happened. Connor just said that shit to get you riled up."

"Oh yeah? And why is Randy hiding then?"

"Because you came up here to kill him for no reason. That's usually a good reason to hide." Cooper could plainly see that James was not pacified so he decided to be really distracting and pretend to almost faint so James could catch him and began hovering over him like the overprotective bear of a man he was. _Randy better fucking appreciate this,_ he thought to himself. _Because Dad is going to make me want to strangle him by the time this is all over._

…

After the bodies had been disposed of Trish, Amy and Jeff were all taken to the hospital. Jeff tried to refuse to go but nobody would listen to him. They were too busy trying to figure out the story to tell the hospital. After much debate, it was decided that the story would be that Trish, Amy and Jeff managed to escape while Raven and the others were gone and then got picked up on the side of the road by the others. Trish and Amy both swore that they would be the most convincing actresses ever and Jeff just kind of nodded along, too lost in his own world to really speak.

When they arrived at the hospital things turned into a giant blur for Jeff. He was whisked off and checked over extensively by doctors and nurses and questioned by cops until he was blue in the face. When the last of the questions were asked, Matt and Glenn came into the room to see him.

"Well…this didn't go as planned at all," Glenn said as he gently played with the strands of Jeff's multi-colored hair.

Jeff chuckled weakly at that. "You could say that again." He turned his head to look at Matt, who did not seem like he was going to be letting him go any time soon. "How are Trish and Amy?"

Matt sighed. "As well as they can be I guess. Trish wants to see you after she and Amy have a little alone time. I know that much."

Jeff wanted to see her too. The two of them used to be very close and he had really missed that during their time apart. "And John? Is he still around?"

Glenn and Matt both exchanged looks. "What?" Jeff asked fearfully. "What's the matter?"

"Well he's here," Matt said slowly. "But um…" He hesitated, trying to be as delicate as possible with what he wanted to say.

Glenn shook his head, deciding to say fuck it with the delicate approach and just blurt out the question of the hour. "What the hell are you thinking Jeff? He's a cop! A _cop_! Have you fucking lost your mind?"

Jeff shrank back from Glenn and shook his head. "I can explain-"

"Do you have any idea what you're doing?" Glenn had no intention of stopping now that he had gotten started. "He's one of the people who's looking to hunt us down."

"No he don't know," Jeff said quickly. "He'll never know I won't tell him."

"Jeffro I hate to burst your bubble but people can find stuff out without being told," Matt said gently. "And if he figures out who you are and what you do, that could be very bad. He could arrest you-"

"He could arrest ALL of us," Glenn interjected. "You're fucking us all over right now."

Matt gave Glenn a nasty look. "Stop that. We agreed-"

"Matt look at him! He's not absorbing anything we say. It's going in one ear and out the other!"

Glenn wasn't really wrong about that. Deep down, Jeff knew that Matt and Glenn had very well founded concerns but his heart didn't want to hear them. His heart was making him turn a deaf ear to all of it because it felt so unbelievably strongly towards John. It felt…it felt…love? Was he in love with John? Had he fallen in love for the first time ever? That seemed to be the case but he couldn't be sure because he didn't even really get love at all. _I gotta talk to John,_ he decided as Matt and Glenn continued to try to talk to him. He didn't care what anyone else said; he had to talk to him and that was that.


	27. How I Feel

"You have GOT to be fucking kidding me," Stephanie muttered under her breath. This was the last fucking thing she had needed to have happen. Regal was dead. His car had had a bomb attached to it and he had been blown to smithereens. It was the work of the MCS. There was absolutely no doubt about that. Once again they had crossed the line and were getting away with it. Everything was starting to weight heavily on Stephanie's shoulders and it was putting her in a foul mood. It was her job to find out who the Saints were and capture them but she had been failing at each and every single turn. And failure was not acceptable to her bosses. She knew that if she didn't she was going to get replaced with someone more "capable" and she couldn't let that happen. Some thought she had it easy with her dad being the Captain of the entire police force but she didn't. If she had been her brother Shane things might have been different but she had been born a girl, therefore, in matters such as work and being deserving for shit, she had to fight three times as hard as anyone else to prove herself to her father. "This is unacceptable. Completely un-fucking-acceptable."

Nobody dared to say a word. Everyone in her department (except for John of course) had been gathered up for this meeting and they were watching her like she was a ticking time bomb. McMahons were notorious for their tempers and Stephanie was no exception.

"We're supposed to be the law here." She was pacing back and forth, making eye contact with everyone at one point or another and making sure that they felt uncomfortable. "This is our city. Our job is to protect and serve this town but is that happening? No…nobody trusts us. Nobody wants us to do shit. Half the population thinks we're too stupid to tie our own shoes and the other half thinks we're dirty, corrupt bastards who are a part of the problem. And honestly…I know that some of you are. Some of you ARE part of the problem and I will deal with you personally. The time for fun and games are over. I'm cracking the whip and we are taking this city back."

Dave discreetly shifted his weight to his other foot. He knew where this conversation was going. This was going to turn into an anti-Saint speech and he was definitely not in that camp. Like he had told John before, he supported the Saints. He didn't do so that openly because he knew Stephanie would get pissed but he still supported them. They had made the city safer. He felt like there shouldn't be any denying of that. Yes their methods were violent and unconventional but they got things done. The system he and his co-workers had to stick to was broken. They could all try to pretend it wasn't but it was. It was broken and as long as it was broken, they were never going to truly be able to make things right.

"They're vigilantes." Almost as if she knew what Dave was thinking, Stephanie looked right at him as she said that. "They're vigilantes that use murder and terrorism for their own agenda. Yes they've killed plenty of bad guys but in this society, murder is still murder. And murderers are dealt with by the law." She looked all around the room, just waiting for someone to speak against her. When nobody proved stupid enough to do that, she continued on. "I want the Saints found and I want them found yesterday, you understand me? Failure is no option and if you think for an instant it is, then you'll have to deal with me. You understand me?"

Everyone nodded. Once again, they were nowhere near stupid enough to do anything else.

"Good. Now get to work."

…

"This is so not good," Matt muttered as he rubbed his eyes tiredly. He had been watching John, Jeff, Trish and Amy all together in Trish and Amy's room and now he was turning to address Glenn. "This is really really REALLY not good."

"Tell me about it," Glenn muttered under his breath. He was leaning back against the wall, brooding quietly for the most part. "Question is, what the fuck do we do about it?"

That was a good question that Matt honestly did not have the answer to. Jeff was obviously nuts about the guy and John seemed to be genuinely interested in Jeff; he came all the way out to California when he thought he was in trouble so obviously there was something really there. But there was no way this was going to end well. John was a cop and Jeff was part of the MCS. Cops were supposed to arrest any member of the MCS and bring them to justice or whatever. And it was naïve to think that John wouldn't eventually find out. The longer he and Jeff stayed together, the more likely it became. It was just going to be inevitable. The Saints were a huge part of Jeff's life. Even if he stopped taking a part of the group's activities he would still be connected with them.

"They can't be together," Glenn said as he rubbed the top of his bald head. "It's too dangerous."

"I know," Matt said with a sigh. "But we can't just tell Jeff that. The instant we forbid him from doing something, he'll just do it more." He knew that one from experience. It was the way his brother work and it always drove him mad. "Besides, if Cena came all the way out here for him and then suddenly Jeff tries to stay away from him, wouldn't that just raise his suspicions and make him try to find out if Jeff's hiding something?"

Glenn groaned because that was a good point. "Well fuck." They were caught between a rock and a fucked place. "This sucks."

Matt nodded in agreement. "I know. We'll have to warn the others. Maybe they'll know what to do about this."

Glenn snorted. "I doubt it. We're the only truly sane and reasonable ones in the entire group."

"Mark and Tom-"

"Mark's dating Lawson and Tom thinks its funny to poke that dragon. Obviously their sanity is nonexistent."

Matt frowned a bit. "James is alright man. I mean yeah he's a bit out there-"

"He's psychotic. You've never met the real him and believe me, you don't want to."

"Right…" That sounded nice and ominous. Matt decided to just not argue with Glenn about it and take out his phone so he could call Evan. He knew cell phone use was frowned on in hospitals for whatever reason but he didn't really care right now. He was going to use his to call Evan and whoever didn't like it could kiss his ass.

Evan's phone seemed to ring forever and Matt felt a sense of disappointment come over him when he thought he was just going to have to leave a message. But at the last second before it would have switched the voicemail, it was answered. "Hello?"

"Hey," Matt said, walking away from Glenn for a bit because the larger man was smirking at him.

"Hey!" Evan's voice perked right up. "I was thinking about you. I miss you."

"I miss you too."

"Is everything okay with Jeff?"

"Yeah. He's banged up and shit but we should we back home within a day or two." Matt did not want to get into detail if he could help it. The way he figured it, the less Evan knew about this situation, the better. Saint business and innocent boyfriends just did not mix well together.

"That's good." Evan did sound really relieved, which was sweet considering he didn't actually know Jeff. Or maybe he was just relieved that Matt was coming back. Either way, Matt couldn't help but smile.

"You want to do something when I get back?"

"Yeah." Evan's answer was practically instantaneous and eager. "Like what?"

"I don't know…go to the movies, get some dinner, something like that?"

"I'd like that."

"Good. I'll see you when I get back then."

"Okay. Bye Matt."

"Bye Evan." Matt hung up the phone and twitched as he heard Glenn laughing at him. "What?"

"Matt's robbing the cradle," Glenn said in a very creepy sing-song way.

Matt's whole face turned bright red. "Oh shut up."

…

"I feel so fucking guilty," Jeff said as he and John watched over Trish and Amy, who had both fallen asleep in the same bed. They had both gotten majorly fucked up by Raven and it was tearing Jeff apart. This had all happened because of him. Raven had hurt them to get to him. He wasn't sure what the fuck had all happened to them until he had gotten there and he really didn't want to think about it. The guilt was crushing him enough as it was.

John shook his head and tucked a strand of Jeff's hair behind his ear. "Don't. It's not your fault."

"It is though," Jeff insisted. He knew John was just saying that to make him feel better. "Raven wanted me and he went after them to lure me in. Without me, this wouldn't have-" He was cut off by John's lips on his and for a split second he tried to push him away so he could continue verbally guilt tripping himself. But then he just pulled John closer, deepening the kiss and settling into a nice make-out session that left them both breathless.

"It's not your fault," John repeated when they finally broke apart. "You couldn't control what he did. It was him and his band of misfits that hurt them, not you. Don't blame yourself, okay?"

Jeff sighed and rested his forehead on John's. "You make it sound so easy."

"You just gotta tell you're conscious this isn't the time to torture yourself."

Jeff smiled weakly. "Again, you make it sound so easy." He still needed a distraction so he resumed kissing John, carefully climbing into his lap and straddling his waist. John was kissing him back, but stopped and shook his head when Jeff started grinding his ass against his crotch. "Wait wait wait, stop for a second."

Jeff paused, gulping nervously because nobody really ever told him to stop. Usually when he even felt like spreading his legs a tiny bit everyone was jumping over themselves to get all up in him. "What? What's the matter?"

"We can't do this here?"

"Why?"

John nodded towards Amy and Trish and Jeff instantly slapped his forehead. He had forgotten they were still in the room. "Oh yeah."

John brushed his thumb over Jeff's lips. "Besides, I don't fancy any doctors and nurses trying to walk in and see us."

"Aw, but they would love to see it," Jeff said as he grinned impishly. "People would pay good money to see us fuck." He laughed loudly as John blushed. "Oh fuck, you are too cute." He kissed the older man's forehead. "Don't tell me you're a prude Johnny boy."

"I'm old fashioned," John informed him.

"Ah. So live sex shows are not on your agenda?" Jeff laughed again as John turned even redder. "Oh you are making this too fun."

"Am I?"

"Mmhmm." Jeff pressed his lips against John's and moaned happily as it quickly turned into another make-out session. Just kissing John felt so fucking right. Jeff wasn't quite sure if he could properly explain it to anyone. He could just kiss John forever and be held by him and be content with not going any further. Their lips felt like they naturally went together and them being apart felt wrong. It frightened him a bit because he had never truly felt that way about anyone before. It was a connection much deeper than sex and he wasn't entirely sure how to handle it.

"Jeff? Are you okay?"

_I think I love you_ Jeff silently said. He didn't dare verbalize it though. He didn't want to say it too soon and wreck things. "Yeah," he said, nodding his head and kissing John's lips once more. "I'm fine…hell, I've never been better."


	28. One Way or Another

"Are they here yet are they here yet?" Connor asked eagerly as he bounced up and down. He, James, Mark, Tom and Cooper were all at the airport, waiting for Glenn, Matt and Jeff to get back. Connor was majorly excited, jumping all around and demanding to know if they were back yet every three seconds. Mark was tired from the carnal activities he and James had done the night before and was sitting on one of the chairs, attempting to get some sort of nap in while he waited. James was trying to fend off Connor's constant barrage of questions, Tom was trying not to act bored out of his mind and Cooper was staring at his phone, keeping his texting of Randy as secret as humanly possible because Orton and James were still very far from being on good terms.

"Daddy you didn't answer me!" Connor whined impatiently. If there was one thing he hated in the whole wide word it was to be ignored. He grabbed on to James's hand and began tugging his arm. "Daddy come on! Are they here yet? Are they here yet?"

"No Connor," James said gently. "They're not here yet."

Connor pouted his lips and stomped his foot. "Well why not? That's not fair Daddy I want them to be here NOW!"

"Oh Jesus Christ," Tom muttered under his breath. Connor was really starting to get on his nerves. He didn't know how anyone could stand the kid all the time and was wishing he hadn't gotten pulled along on this airport trip. He usually did not spend this much time with the group because he was not an truly active member of the Saints but with Cooper's relapse and the whole Jeff/California situation, he had been spending a lot more quality time with the group.

Connor frowned and looked over at Tom. "What's the matter Tommy? Are you sad? You look sad." He bounced over and got all up in Tom's business. "I can cheer you up. I'm real good at it I am I am."

"I'm fine," Tom said, doing his best to get Connor away from him without just flat out shoving him. Shoving him would equal instant death and he was not in favor of that. "Really I don't need cheering up."

James smirked, his eyes getting an evil gleam in them that never spelled good news. "I think he's lying Connor. I think he's really really sad and he's about to go cut his wrists in the corner and cry his little eyes out."

Connor's eyes widened and he gasped loudly. "Tommy no! No no no that's BAD!"

Tom grunted as Connor wrapped his arms around his neck and put him in a death grip. "I'm not-ugh…" He rolled his eyes as Connor went on to babble on and on. "I hate you," he growled at James. "And I will get you for this."

James only smirked in response. "Oooh I'm so scared." He looked over at Cooper (who was still on his phone) and frowned. "Who are you talking to?"

"I'm not talking," Cooper said without looking up from his phone. "I'm texting. There's a difference."

James rolled his eyes at the smartass response. "Well who are you texting?"

"Why is it your business?"

"Because I want it to be."

"Well quit being a Nosey Ned and stay out of it."

Connor giggled maniacally and looked over at Cooper. "Nosey Ned…Daddy's name is not Ned stupid. It's James." He started to go back to being all over Tom but then he saw Jeff, Matt and Glenn finally approaching and he squealed in delight. "YAY!" He pushed himself off of Tom and took off running, jumping on to Glenn because he was the one taking the lead. "HI HI HI!"

"Thank God," Tom muttered, relieved to have Connor off of him for awhile. Sure Glenn looked annoyed as hell but that wasn't his problem. Crispy was just going to have to suck it up and deal with the overexcited Connor.

"Marky wake up!" James said, smacking his boyfriend on the chest to wake him up. "They're here!"

Mark grunted and moved his ski cap up back above his eyes and stood up. "Fuck Lawson. Do you always have to wake me up by hitting me?"

"Yes," James replied. He gave Mark a peck on the cheek. "How else-wait, who the hell is that?" His eyes had fallen on the guy who was walking hand in hand with Jeff and he looked really really familiar, but for whatever reason he could not put his finger on where he had seen the guy before.

"Uh oh," Tom said under his breath. His eyes were on the guy too and he went from zero to worried in about a half a second.

"What?" Cooper said, finally tearing himself away from his phone to see what the hell was going on. "What's the matter?"

"Cop," Mark grunted, jerking his head towards Jeff's new friend.

James's eyes widened. "Are you fucking serious?"

"As a heart attack," Tom said while Mark nodded. "Detective John Cena; that's the guy's name. He's like one of the only honest cops in the entire city."

"Well what is-" James's jaw dropped as John and Jeff kissed. "What in the _hell_?"

Mark shook his head in disapproval and looked at Matt and Glenn, who motioned that they would explain the situation in private. That didn't do much to make Mark, James or Tom feel better. They didn't give a shit _what_ the explanation was; Cena was a cop and that was all they needed to know. Cooper was the only one that didn't look remotely worried but that had to do with the fact that he really wasn't paying any attention to the situation at all.

"Are we still going out for pizza still?" he asked, chewing on the piece of gum as loud and obnoxiously as he could to get the others' attention. "Cuz I'm hungry."

Mark rolled his eyes at that. "Is that all you think about boy? Food?"

"No its not," Cooper snapped. "And don't call me boy dickweed." He grabbed on to James's sleeve and tugged on it. "Come _on_ forget the cop for ten minutes so we can eat. I texted Evan and he said he would meet up with us and surprise Matt and Randy-"

"Randy?" James made a face and shook his head. "No, I don't want him eating with us. He's a moron."

"But I want him there."

James literally choked on the breath he choked and Tom smirked as he coughed violently. "Say it again," he told Cooper. "You might kill him if you do."

James glared at Tom while Mark rolled his eyes. It never stopped with those two and it was getting more than a little old. "You just shut up," James growled. "I don't want to hear-"

"Cooper and Randy, sitting in a tree," Tom sang just to piss James off. "F-u-c-k-" He was forced to jump back in order to avoid James throttling the hell out of him. "Hey hey hey! Now I know touching me is your deep dark desire but you need to keep your hands to yourself. You can't touch this."

"Oh I'll touch it," James threatened. "I'll touch it and chop it up into little pieces so there's nothing left!" He tried to grab at Tom again but Mark held him back and Cooper could only roll his eyes before turning around and heading towards the car. They had five minutes to join him or he was hot wiring the vehicle and leaving them stranded there so he could go eat.

…

Twenty minutes later they were all sitting down at the Pizza Ranch, trying to figure out what kind of pizza to order. Matt had taken the ones who hadn't gone to California aside and had filled them in on the whole John/Jeff situation. Connor hadn't given a shit of course but James and Cooper had made him swear up and down that he would not open his big mouth and reveal their identity as the Saints. Evan and Randy were there and it was going to be hard enough to keep the secret from them but it would be much _much_ worse if John were to find out about that fact. They didn't care how much Jeff liked him or how much John claimed to care about him; he was a cop and he couldn't be trusted. It was as simple as that.

John shifted around in his seat, trying to ignore the unpleasant feeling that had taken over him. He did not feel comfortable here at all. Jeff and Evan seemed to be the only ones that even remotely liked him. Everyone else just seemed to be watching him like a hawk and making him feel like he was under a microscope. He didn't know what the hell it was that he had done to offend them but he found himself wishing that either they or he and Jeff were elsewhere so that this situation could be avoided.

"You okay?" Jeff said softly, grabbing on to John's hand under the table and giving it a good squeeze.

John shrugged discreetly. "I don't know," he whispered, deciding to just go ahead and be honest. Jeff had obviously caught on that he wasn't feeling comfortable in this situation and he didn't want to insult his intelligence and lie to him. "I just feel like I've walked into the Spanish Inquisition or something. Your friends really don't seem to like me."

Jeff winced because he knew that was true and John would still know it was true even if he tried to deny it. "They're just…skittish around people they don't know very well," he said slowly. He eyed the others and tried to just give them a look to make them be nicer but it didn't seem to do much good at all. "They'll warm up to you…eventually…I hope."

John didn't look entire convinced so Jeff squeezed his hand again and looked around at the others. Mark and Glenn were talking to the waitress while also trying to keep Tom and James separated, who were having issues yet again. Jeff wasn't sure what the hell it was that had started it and he didn't really care to know. It was probably just something stupid just like it always was. He looked to Matt and see if maybe his older brother would support him but he was too focused on Evan and they were so sickingly cute that Jeff couldn't bear to distract them from each other-for the moment anyway. So he turned to Cooper, who was sitting with Randy and the two of them were getting pretty touchy feely with each other. _Now when did this happen…_

Connor suddenly leaned across the table and got right in John's face, making the older man very very uncomfortable. "So since you love Jeff now, does that mean you and him are going to have a baby?"

"Connor!" Jeff exclaimed as John choked on his drink.

"What?" Connor said innocently. "You two love each other and people who love each other have babies."

"But…but…" Jeff didn't even know how to argue with Connor at the moment. He was just that taken aback by Connor's line of questioning.

"Daddy, do you think that Jeff and John should have a baby?" Connor asked, looking to James for support.

"No," James replied. He disappointed Connor but he wasn't about to change his mind. "There are a lot of thing that need to happen but a baby is not one of them."

"Yeah really," Mark agreed, openly eyeing John very suspiciously.

Jeff scowled and glared at Mark and James, even though it didn't do a whole lot of good. This was getting horribly frustrating. Why couldn't anyone just be happy for him? He knew that being with John was a huge risk and all but John also made him feel safe and happy, two things that people hadn't truly made him feel in a long time. Didn't that count for anything? Didn't that mean anything to anyone else? Couldn't they be happy for him about that? Or at least pretend to be? Was that too much to ask?

An uncomfortable silence filled the table and John shifted around, trying to figure out the best way to break it. "So uh…what exactly do you guys do for a living?" he finally asked, making Jeff cringe internally. _Of all the questions that could be asked…_The Saints couldn't tell him the truth but they couldn't also just not answer. That would be way too suspicious.

"I work in a comic shop," Evan answered innocently. He had sensed the tension but he had no idea what it was all about so he was hoping to help break it up.

"Oh really?" John was jumping on this chance because Evan was the only one who wasn't giving him distrustful looks. "You like it?"

"Yeah it's alright. Oscar and Shane are pretty cool so it makes it even easier."

Randy whispered something into Cooper's ear and waited until he nodded before speaking for the both of them. "Cooper and I are moochers," he replied. "So we do whatever the fuck we want."

"I'M a superhero!" Connor declared, pointing to himself and preening obnoxiously. "I'm Super Connor!"

"Oh that's cool," John said, really not knowing what to make of Connor. That didn't surprise Jeff; nobody knew what to make of Connor the first time they met him.

"It's more than cool," Connor said, standing up and putting his hands on his hips. "It's AWESOME! Do do do! I am Super Connor!" He began making airplane sound effects as he stretched out his arms and began running through the restaurant, running into anyone who dared to get in his way.

"Oh good grief," Cooper grumbled. He got up and went after Connor. "I'll be back."

"I'll help," James volunteered. He stood up and patted Mark on the shoulder. "And you can tell John here about being my little bitch-OW!" Mark had smacked him real good for the bitch comment.

Tom laughed and shook his head. "What's the matter James? You got a boo boo now?"

"Oh why don't you shut up?"

"Why don't you make me?"

John raised his eyebrows and leaned over towards Jeff as James and Tom got into it once again. "Do they do this all the time?"

Jeff nodded. "You have no idea…"

…

"Connor! Connor get back here!" Cooper weaved through the crowded restaurant, cursing under his breath until he managed to catch Connor over by where the giant TV was in the room. "Damn it Connor!" He grabbed his younger brother by the scruff of the neck and shook his head. "How many times-"

"OW!" Connor yelped. "No Coopy stop it! I wanna watch the TV!"

"Well too bad I-" Cooper stopped mid-sentence when he actually looked at the TV and saw that Lt. Stephanie McMahon was holding a press conference. She looked pretty pissed so he decided to just wait and see what it was all about. It was always good to know what the people who were trying to arrest you were saying.

"For years our city's justice system has turned into a joke and vigilantes known as the Murder City Saints have taken control," she said, staring right at the camera intently. "And I am tired of it. For too long I have allowed it because of the way I've been trying to just work with our broken system and I have realized that it cannot go on. The latest attack on William Regal was over the top and extremely dangerous to the public. They blew up his car in an act of terrorism and I am officially offering a reward for the capture of the Saints. Ten thousand for information leading to their arrest or twenty five thousand dollars for each individual member."

Cooper and Connor exchanged looks. Cooper was cringing like crazy and Connor was just standing there, not really getting it but knowing that something wasn't good.

Stephanie stared hard into the camera, her eyes flashing with determination. "One way or another…this is going to end."


	29. Deadly Game

"Well…anyone have anything to say?" Matt asked. He and the other members of the MCS had gathered for a meeting but nobody had really said anything yet. All that had really happened was Cooper telling them about what he had seen on the news and then things had gone quiet. Way too quiet. This group was a lot of things but quiet usually wasn't one of them. It really just made Matt feel extremely uncomfortable.

Tom finally sighed and raised his hand. "I've got something to say." He waited until all eyes were on him before saying it. "We're fucked."

Mark snorted loudly at that. "Oh that's great Tom. Really, that's just the kind of motivating thing we were looking to hear."

"Well it's the truth," Tom pointed out. "No sense in denying it."

"Well what's with all your "we" bullshit?" James asked. He was cranky so of course he was looking to pick a fight with Tom. "You're not even an active member of this group. What the fuck are you worried about?"

"Hey, I'm an accessory you moron. Do you understand what that term means? That means I'm in a pretty deep amount of shit myself."

James went to say something else nasty back to him but Mark elbowed him really hard in the ribs to get him to shut up. "Ow! What the hell Mark?"

"This isn't the time," Mark said gruffly. "You two can fight later. Right now, we have to figure out what the fuck to do."

"Maybe we should just bail," Glenn suggested matter of factly. He got quite a few looks for that so he went on to justify himself. "Look, we've done some good shit here but did we really think this was going to last forever? We're vigilantes by definition and the law don't put up with that. I mean yeah, the cops here have always been incompetent but we've got a bounty on our heads this time and a lot of people do know who we are. For this long we've relied on their distrust of the cops for their silence but with money being thrown to whoever sells us out, we can't do that anymore. There are going to people tripping over themselves to sell us out if they're not already. Our best bet is just to get the fuck out of dodge while we still can."

"No…" Jeff shook his head. "We can't just leave. This is our home we can't-" He faltered at the look Glenn gave him and then looked at Matt for support. "This is our home Matty. There's gotta be a way besides leaving."

"Jeff this isn't time to be thinking with your dick!" Glenn snapped, which made Mark, Cooper and James all glare at him. "The only reason you're having an issue leaving is because of John-"

"Crispy shut up!" Cooper ordered, giving Glenn a hard kick to the shin for good measure. This was not the time to be giving Jeff a bunch of shit. There were way more important matters at hand.

"Matt please," Jeff pleaded. He was completely ignoring Glenn in favor of clasping his hands together and giving his older brother a pleading look. "There's gotta be something we can do so we won't have to leave."

Matt shook his head helplessly. He felt bad that Jeff was turning to him for help and he had nothing to offer up. He honestly didn't see a way out of this that didn't involve running…but then again, would running really do any good? What if Stephanie still found out who they were and them running only lead to a manhunt? He didn't feel like spending the rest of his life on the run. He got exhausted just thinking about it. "I don't know," he finally admitted. It killed him to see the way Jeff's face fell but he couldn't lie and act like he knew what to do. That just wasn't going to do any good whatsoever.

Connor frowned, not truly understanding the severity of the situation. He was just getting anxious because everyone else was all worried and shit. "Why can't we just kill the meanies?"

"Because we're going to get ourselves in even deeper shit by wiping out the entire police department," Cooper explained. "And we don't need to be in deeper shit."

"So can't we just pay them to leave us alone?" Connor was just getting really really bored with this conversation and wanted it to end so someone could take him to the park and play.

"Now there's an idea," James said, which got him a shake of the head from Mark. "What?" he said with a sigh. "It _is_ an idea."

"We stand against corrupted cops," Mark reminded him. "We pay some of them off to not arrest us and we instantly become hypocrites."

"Better than going to jail," Tom pointed out.

"I don't even think that'll work though," Matt pointed out. "We've killed a good chunk of the dirty cops. And who says the dirty ones won't take the money and then sell us out anyway?"

That question was met with a long silence. They were really just basking in how utterly fucked they were. But then James broke the silence and came up with another idea.

"Why don't we just pay all the people who know we're the Saints into keeping their mouths shut?"

All eyes went to James and then looked at each other. "All of them?" Jeff repeated incredulously.

"Yeah," James replied. He sounded completely nonchalant about the idea.

"Where the hell would we even get that kind of money?" Matt asked.

"Likansuk."

"Bless you asshole," Tom quipped.

James shot him the bird for that. "I own a fucking porn enterprise. I have all the money we need right at my fingertips."

"Well shit, let's just go for it," Mark said. "And if that don't work, we run. Sound good?"

Everyone else nodded along, although Jeff was clearly only doing so because Mark's tone was making it clear that he wasn't going to put up with any other answer. Matt felt better now that they had that decided although he still had an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach that would not be going away any time soon. This situation was bad in itself but it felt like something even worse was just around the corner. _Stop it,_ he scolded himself. _Just stop. Whatever it is, we'll handle it-if there's anything to worry about at all. You could just be being paranoid and worrying about nothing. Absolutely fucking nothing._

…

"Dave! DAVE! Over here!"

"I'm coming I'm coming!" Dave followed the sound of Shane's voice and met up with him, Oscar and Evan, who technically shouldn't have been in the bar but Shane was friends with the guy who owned the place so an exception had been made this time around. "What's up?"

"Not much." Oscar grabbed Dave's hand and gave it a big squeeze before kissing his cheek. "We just got here a little bit ago. We weren't sure how late you were going to be."

"Late?" Dave shook his head, mildly insulted by that statement. "I'm never late."

"And pigs fly out of my ass on a daily basis," Shane said with a loud snort.

"Hey man, keep that personal shit to yourself, okay? Nobody wants to hear it."

"Sure they do. They're all dying to know every single detail about me."

Evan frowned at Shane and shook his head. "Quit stroking your own ego man. You'll just end up disappointed in the long run."

Dave laughed at the look Shane gave Evan before letting his eyes scan all across the bar. He knew the majority of the people there and the ones he didn't really know were people he had at least seen around a couple of times. There were however, a group of guys he had never seen before and something about them immediately set him on edge. There were eight of them all together and even when the split up into pairs and went their separate ways it didn't set well with them. "Who are those guys?"

"Who?" Shane looked back and saw who Dave was talking about. "Uh…I have no fucking idea."

"Babe what's the matter?" Oscar asked. He recognized the look on Dave's face and it made him feel extremely uneasy.

Dave didn't say anything. He just got up to his feet and made eye contact with one of the men. The man was tall, well above six feet and he had short black hair, a muscular yet somewhat lanky frame and a smirk on his face that just screamed trouble. His smirk got bigger when he made eye contact with Dave and he actually waved at him, which was not only a "friendly" gesture to him but a signal to his comrades, who attacked at once, some shooting the place up and others attacking with their bare hands, grabbing anyone that tried to run for the door and beating them to a pulp. Dave started to reach for his gun but before he could get it out he felt something rip through his chest and he fell down to his knees, blood rapidly filling his lungs. He could hear people screaming but he didn't get the time to figure out who they were. Another bullet ripped through him and he fell the rest of the way to the ground, laying there bleeding for a couple of minutes before his world faded to black and he knew no more.


	30. Do This Anymore

John just stood perfectly still inside the shower, letting the hot water soothe his muscles. He hadn't wanted to come home by himself; he had actually been wanting to ask Jeff if he wanted to come over for awhile. Jeff had seemed to want to go too but he had told him there was something he and his friends needed to take care of and he would call him later. Something definitely had seemed to be amiss, but John wasn't sure if it was anything beyond the distrustful glares they were all giving him. He wasn't sure why they were giving him that look. Maybe they were just super protective of Jeff. Or maybe they knew he was a cop and were cold to him because of that. That wouldn't be surprising to him at all considering the fact that it had happened on more than one occasion. Whatever the case was, he found himself more than willing to do what it took to prove them wrong about him. He didn't want there to be problems between Jeff and them because of him. He wanted to show them that he really did care for Jeff and then they could go on from there.

He stayed in the shower for another twenty minutes, only getting out because the water was starting to cool down from where he wanted it. Once he was out he dried himself off and slipped some clean clothes on, walking barefoot from the bathroom to the laundry room so he could toss his wet towel and dirty clothes into the laundry basket. He really needed to just do the laundry already but he was feeling too lazy to go through with it at the moment so instead he went into the living room and plopped down on the couch. The remote was sitting on the tray right next to him and he grabbed it and turned the TV on, about to turn the channel to ESPN when a knock on his door interrupted him. His first thought was that it was Jeff so he jumped up to his feet and rushed to answer the door, at first disappointed to see that it was Stephanie-and then immediately concerned by the look on her face. "Steph? What is it?"

She let out a long sigh. "You haven't watched the news, have you?"

"No. Why? What happened?"

There was a long silence. "…Something happened…with Dave…"

…

The violent shootout at the bar was the breaking news for that night. Eleven people had died including Detective Dave Batista and many more were wounded. The police were all over the scene, with the exception of Stephanie and Cena, who were going to have to find a way to break the news to Dave's daughters. Oscar was dead too so they didn't have to tell him…it was all just a mess really. The city had seen its share of violence over the years but this was the worst thing to have happened since the MCS established their brand of vigilante justice.

Speaking of the MCS, unbeknownst to the cops on the scene, some of them were there as well. James and Cooper were scoping out the scene, playing the part as curious bystanders. Usually Matt and Jeff did this because they generally attracted less attention just because of their size alone, but Matt had gotten a call from the hysterical Evan (who was thankfully uninjured, mostly because Shane had shielded him with his body and had taken a bullet for him in the process) so now he, Jeff and Mark were up at the hospital. Glenn and Tom were on Connor duty back at home, although Tom would more than likely bail during the middle of that (if he hadn't already) which would leave Glenn to deal with Connor all alone.

"Holy fucking shit," Cooper said under his breath.

James nodded in agreement. That summed this mess up quite nicely.

"Who do you think did this?"

James could only shrug. He didn't know and he wasn't going to pretend to. The talk that was going around now was that there were several gunmen, the number changing depending on which mouth it was coming out of. James's first instinct was to think that it was a street gang or something but his experiences with them usually proved that they generally shot at rival gangs. These guys had intentionally tried to take out the entire bar. Some sort of violent gang initiation maybe? Who the fuck knew. He reached into his pocket and took out his pack of cigarettes, getting one out for himself and smacking Cooper's hand when he tried to grab one as well.

"Ow!" Cooper gave James a dirty look. "What was that for?"

"Smoking kills," James replied.

"So why are you doing it?"

James shrugged. "I'm your father. You do as I say, not as I do."

Cooper laughed hard at that one. "Oh please Dad, don't even try that shit with me." He tried to grab one yet again and once again James smacked his hand. "Dad!"

"I said no."

"…I could go back to the coke."

James narrowed his eyes at that threat. "If you want Orton to live you better not ever even think like that again."

Cooper let out an ultra childish whine and folded his arms over his chest, easily falling back into the sulky teenager role he never seemed to grow out of. "You suck Dad."

"Yeah yeah yeah." James clapped his hand on Cooper's shoulder and gave it a good squeeze. "You'll thank me when you're older and don't have lung cancer."

Cooper muttered a few choice obscenities at him before sulking off, leaving James to stand there and shake his head. _Kids…_

…

Almost immediately upon arriving at the hospital Matt found himself having to catch Evan because the younger man launched himself into his arms. He stumbled back a couple of steps, mainly out of surprise, but he quickly righted himself and hugged Evan back just as tightly as he was being hugged. The younger man was trembling violently in his arms and he found himself feeling a thousand times more relieved than he even thought he would be now that he had him safe in his arms. When he had found out Evan had been in the bar when that shootout had taken place he had gotten scared and worried to death. Just the thought of Evan being hurt…even Evan telling him that he hadn't been hurt hadn't soothed him. He had needed to get here and see for himself that Evan wasn't harmed before he could remotely calm down.

Mark and Jeff exchanged a look before wordlessly walking off to go see if they could go see Shane. Matt and Evan didn't even notice that they left them. They were too wrapped up in each other. Matt kissed Evan's neck over and over again before kissing his jaw and finally his lips. Evan returned the kiss more than eagerly, wrapping his legs around Matt's waist and letting out a soft moan as Matt's tongue slipped into his mouth. They were getting quite a few stares from the hospital staff but they didn't give a shit. They just kept up with the make-out session until both of their lungs were burning for air and even then they pulled themselves apart very reluctantly.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Being the way he was, now that he had gotten over his initial relief he was checking Evan all over for any sign of injury.

Evan nodded. "I'm fine. Freaked out yeah but nothing got me." He noticed that Matt was still checking him over so he kissed him once again, effectively distracting him. If they would have been anywhere more private things would have been taken much further. They both certainly wanted it. Evan was trying to grind himself against Matt as discreetly as possible and Matt immediately arched his hips forward and did the same. In the end though, Matt's decency wore out and he reluctantly set Evan down to his feet and took his hands off of him to help fight the temptation to keep going.

"So what the fuck happened?" They both sat down in the nearest chairs, Matt's voice dropping as he started his questioning. He didn't want to push Evan too hard but answers needed to be found if they could.

Evan shook his head, already shuddering as he thought back about it. "I don't even know. I just…" His voice trailed off and they just sat there in silence for a few minutes, Matt waiting quite patiently as Evan collected himself. "Dave saw them first. He knew something was wrong but it all just…it all just fucking happened so fast Matt. It just…the guns just started firing and Dave went down…Oscar went down…everyone was just dropping like flies." He bit his lip and started twisting his hands together, something he generally did out of anxiety. "They had the exits blocked at first but then they started getting distracted with all the violence and that's how Shane and I managed to slip out." Of course that had resulted in a bullet Shane's shoulder but he didn't say that. He felt beyond guilty for that because Shane had been so focused on protecting him instead of himself.

Matt needed to ask Evan more about the shooters but he restrained himself. It was painfully obvious how traumatized Evan was and not only had experience taught him that it was much more difficult to get useful information out of people when they were like that, but he also just didn't have it in him to keep up the subject matter. So instead he pulled Evan back into his arms, wrapping his arms around him tightly as the younger man put his head underneath his chin and buried his face into his chest.

…

"Well shit," Jeff said under his breath. Shane was in surgery to get the bullet removed from his leg and he wasn't going to be allowed visitors until sometime tomorrow. He knew that they should have expected that but still, he was hoping that maybe they could have talked to him and make some sort of sense out of all of this. The news had reported on there being numerous gunmen, somewhere in between five and ten of them. They had gotten away, which wasn't surprising in this city but was a cause for concern. The longer these people were out running free the more chances they had to add to the body count. "What do we do now?"

Mark shrugged. "What we always do. Go out, try to figure this shit out, hopefully get a lead…we can come back here tomorrow and talk to him."

"What about Matt? He's not going to want to leave Evan."

Mark didn't respond to that because he was busy thinking about that. Given the situation, they needed to really get to work but at the same time, he knew that if Matt didn't feel like going away from Evan's side, then he wouldn't go without a huge fight. And one of those would just waste more time than they had.

Jeff watched Mark, trying to wait patiently for some sort of response. When he didn't get one though, he shook his head and leaned back against the wall, slowly letting his legs go out from under him so he could sink down to the ground. He knew that Matt really cared about Evan and he was glad that Matt had found someone that made him happy, but at the same time, the situation irritated him somewhat. Absolutely nobody was giving Matt shit for dating a civilian. Matt was putting Evan at risk by being with him because if anyone found out who Matt was and that he was dating Evan, it would just cause all kinds of problems. And Cooper too-he was seemingly getting all cozy with Randy and while James was raising hell about it, was anyone else? Nope. It was only his relationship with John that was making everyone mad.

And yes he did understand why. He really did. It was putting them at risk, but really, so was having Evan and Randy in Matt and Cooper's lives. What if they found out the truth and sold them out? That was a very very real possibility. Maybe Evan was likely to only do it under torture since he was a sweetie but still…it would be nice to have SOMEBODY besides him recognize that fact.

He took his phone out of his pocket and stared at it, wanting to call John so badly that his chest hurt slightly from it. But he knew that given the circumstances, there was no way he would have any time to talk. So, in lieu of calling, he sent him a text message saying that he missed him and to call him when he got a chance. Mark noticed what he was doing but didn't bother to try to look over Jeff's shoulder and read the text. He just let Jeff send it before holding out his hand and pulling him back up to his feet. "Come on. We'll go talk to Matt and figure shit out from there."

"Fine." Jeff shoved his phone into his pocket and tried to seem like he was ready to get down to business. But in his heart, he wasn't. Suddenly in that moment, he realized that this was the last thing he wanted to be doing. _Stop that,_ he scolded himself, taken aback by this sudden feeling. He had never felt this way since joining the Saints. He had immersed himself in the world, loving the fact that it gave him a new family and something to do with his life. But now he wanted something else, something he was too scared to even think about telling the others.

He wanted out.


	31. The Day That Never Comes

John didn't get any sleep that night. He couldn't even make an attempt at it. He and Stephanie told Dave's daughters about what had happened to their father and then he had stayed with them for the night since he was too "emotional" to be on the case and the girls needed to be with someone they trusted. Their mother wasn't even in the picture anymore; Dave and Oscar had been their world. Stephanie had managed to get a hold of Dave's mother before she had left and she would be coming as soon as possible. Most likely, she would be the one that would get custody of them now. John hoped that was how it went anyway. He had only met her a few times but he knew that not only would they be in good hands, but that was what Dave would want anyway.

He leaned against the doorway, watching the girls as they laid in bed together. They had cried themselves to sleep finally and he was being as quiet as he possibly could be to avoid waking them up. He just felt numb at the moment. His mind did not want to comprehend the fact that Dave was gone. Dave was his friend….had been…no. No past tense. His mind did not want to accept the past tense. He just wanted to go to bed and wake up in the morning and have all of this not be real. It wouldn't happen of course but he wanted it and he didn't find it fair that it couldn't happen. It just sucked in so many ways he couldn't even begin to describe it.

He watched the girls a little while longer before sighing and quietly creeping downstairs and going into the kitchen. His throat was feeling horribly dry so he opened the refrigerator door and drank the orange juice straight from the carton. It did nothing to help his thirst though. He tried chugging more and more of it but nothing was helping so he finally just stopped and put what was left back in the fridge. "Shit…" He let the refrigerator door swing shut and sank down into the nearest chair. It felt like he needed to cry but he could not get the tears out no matter how hard he tried. He was too numb to actually cry. How long had it been since the last time he cried? He was trying to remember. It had been years since he had done it. It had been…oh yeah. He had been fifteen and it was after his grandmother's funeral. That had been it.

Letting out a long sigh he rubbed the back of his neck and glanced towards the window. The sun was just starting to come up. That made him sigh again. Watching the sun come up was better when he was getting up early to watch it than it was watching it after being up all night. It just felt all weird and wrong when he watched it from the latter perspective.

He looked away from the window and stared down at his lap. The bulge of his phone in his pocket caught his eye the most. It felt extremely heavy now, just begging to get taken out of his pocket and used. He tried to do it from his sitting position but couldn't get it out so he stood up and did it instead. Jeff had crept back into the forefront of his mind. The intensity of his feelings for the younger man in this short amount of time would have scared him if he stopped to think about it too much. He couldn't put his finger on the exact reason why Jeff had taken him over so much. All he knew was that he did and he couldn't get enough of him.

He started to dial Jeff's number but before he could touch the last three numbers he heard the door knock. Part of him wanted to ignore it but he knew that he shouldn't. It could have been Stephanie or Dave's mom. So, with a long sigh, he went to the door and opened it. Much to his surprise, it was Jeff waiting for him on the other side. "What-"

"I needed to see you," Jeff told him. He stepped into the house and his arms went around the older man's neck while his face got buried into his strong, broad shoulder. John shook off his surprise an hugged Jeff back even more tightly, kicking the door shut with his foot and burying his face into Jeff's neck, breathing him in and melting to the point that he just wanted to stay like that forever.

…

"So where did you say Jeff went?" Tom asked Mark as he watched Glenn make breakfast. Matt was still with Evan and James, Cooper and Connor were asleep. Mark was more than likely going to go get some rest after he ate, which would leave Glenn to do some investigating of his own. Tom wasn't quite sure of what he was going to do yet. He knew Mark and them wanted the extra help but he wasn't a full fledged member of the Saints for a reason. Being their weapons dealer was one thing but actually being in the group wasn't exactly the smartest thing to do. And given the fact that the heat had been turned up on them, the smartest thing for him to do would be just to get the hell out of dodge while he still could.

"He said he needed to take a walk," Mark replied without looking at him. He had his head resting against the wall and his eyes closed. He sounded annoyed that Tom had interrupted him from his attempt to just go to sleep right then and there.

"And you just let him go?" Glenn asked dubiously.

Mark opened his eyes and gave his younger half brother a cranky look. "He looked like he needed to be left alone. You know how hard it is to get any privacy in this house?"

"Given that there's a manhunt on the whole lot of us, I don't think privacy is anything any of us should be worried about," Glenn shot back.

"Yeah well what was I supposed to do? Tell him no and have him sneak out anyway? He was going to go out either way."

Tom slowly shook his head. "You really think he went to take a walk? I will bet you my _Viper_ that he's with Cena right now."

Glenn chuckled dryly. He knew how much Tom loved that car and wouldn't even say something like that unless he knew damn well what he was talking about. "He's right Mark. You _know_ he's with Cena and you _know_ that won't end well."

"Obviously he don't care," Mark grumbled.

"Well of course not. He's in love."

"And what is he going to do if the one he's in love with turns around and turns us all in because of who we are?"

"Well…I don't know. We'll all jump off that bridge when we come to it."

…

Stephanie sat alone at her desk, her elbows propped up on her desk and her face resting in her hands as she took several deep breaths. It just felt like everything was crashing down around her. She had gotten used to losing colleagues; the Saints had made a habit of offing the ones they rightfully determined to be dirty. But this was different. Dave was one of the good ones and she had genuinely liked the guy. Given her position and the level of corruption she had always had to deal with, she had always relied on the few good ones she had even more than she would have normally.

The entire situation was a mess. Her unit was in an uproar because they were just as upset about Dave and John, pretty much the best cop she had, was the one she really couldn't let work this case because he had been Dave's partner and there was no way he would be able to keep his emotions out of it if he caught the people responsible for this.

Who was responsible for this? She didn't know. Some had thrown the Saints out there as suspects but she didn't think that was the case. The Saints had done a lot of things in their time, but opening fire in a crowded bar full of innocent people didn't really fit into what they were all about. In fact, given their track record, they were probably looking for answers right along side the police force that was hunting them.

She wasn't sure how she should feel about that. Vigilantes were just not something she could go around supporting. Sure they had gotten plenty of bad people but the way they did it was the problem. They went around killing those people, which was against the law. Maybe people were safer with those people dead but what gave the Saints the right to play judge, jury and executioner? Who told them they got to play God with other people's lives? The criminals, the dirty cops, the whole lot of them needed to be brought to justice, not die by the hand of a group of outlaws.

She finally took her face out of her hands and was about to grab her coffee cup so she could take a drink out of it when the lights went out. Her heart automatically skipped a beat and she barely stopped herself from letting out a frightened and surprised scream. "Shit shit shit!" she whispered to herself. She very carefully got up to her feet. Her eyes were struggling to adjust to the pitch blackness she was now surrounded in. _Deep breaths Steph, deep breaths._ She repeated that mantra to herself until she felt herself start to calm down. Then she felt around her desk, opening several drawers until she finally managed to find the flashlight she had in there. She quickly turned it on, letting out a sigh of relief at the light. It wasn't much but it would at least help her get to the fuse box.

As she left her office she felt a sharp chill go up her spine. She had never had the power go out there before and it really was creepy. As far as she knew, she was all alone there. Maybe the janitor was there but she couldn't remember for sure. "Fuse box," she said under her breath. "Fuse box…" It took her a moment to remember where it was. When she did she started to head that way but stopped when she thought she heard something. It was only a slight creak of the floors but in the darkness it sounded much louder and much more sinister. Her hand rested over her gun and she shined the light all around, not seeing anything suspicious. "Jesus Christ," she muttered under her breath. "Get yourself toge-"

A large hand holding a chloroform soaked rag clamped tightly over mouth while another hand grabbed the wrist of the hand that was closest to her gun, squeezing it so she wouldn't be able to grab it. She let out a muffled scream and tried to hit the person with a flashlight but more people appeared out of the dark and grabbed her all at once, rendering her helpless before the chloroform took full effect and rendered her unconscious.


	32. We Are One

Jeff snuggled up closer to John's chest and listened to his heartbeat. They were laying on John's bed, the sweat on their bodies gradually cooling as they laid underneath the sheets. He had no idea how long he had been there nor did he care to look at the time. He was at peace here. If he could, he would just stay there forever. It would be much easier if he could do that. So much simpler. With John, everything felt right. It was simple and right and just everything he could ever ask for.

"You alright?" John asked quietly.

Jeff frowned and looked at him in surprise. "Your partner just died and you're asking me if _I'm_ alright? Shouldn't it be the other way around?"

"Well you haven't asked yet."

"Cuz I know you're going to try to seem fine when we both know you're not." Jeff reached up and lightly brushed his finger down the bridge of John's nose. "There's no way you can be."

John didn't say anything to that. There really wasn't anything he could say. Jeff wished there was something he could say that would make the situation remotely better but he knew that that just wasn't possible. So instead he stayed silent and pressed a soft kiss to John's lips. John returned it before stopping and shaking his head. "It just don't feel real. I mean I _know_ it's real but it like hasn't fully hit me yet. I don't even know what I'm going to do when it does fully hit me. I mean I've always known the risks of my job…I've lost people I considered friends. But Dave was like a brother to me. I just…I don't even know what to do now."

Jeff nodded along sympathetically. "Are you going to be allowed to work this case?"

John shook his head. "I don't think so. I'm not there now because I got told to stay home. I'm too "emotionally invested" in this one. I'm going to try to talk Stephanie into letting me but I'm not sure how that'll go." He took a deep breath and they both laid in silence for a bit. When he started to talk again his voice was so low that if Jeff wasn't right next to him he wouldn't have been able to hear him at all. "I want to get these guys. I want to just fucking get them. Or hell, this time, I want the Saints to get them. I know that's like bad for me to say but I can't help it."

"I don't think it's bad. The Saints have done a lot of good."

"But they're vigilantes."

"Yeah but sometimes playing nice doesn't get the job done. Not when there's so much corruption in the system." Jeff kissed John's cheek and sat up. "We shouldn't be debating this. You're grieving, you don't need to be in a debate about anything."

"Then what do I need to do?" John asked. He sat up too and looked at Jeff sadly. "Because I'm kind of at a loss right now."

"You sit and let me make you something to eat," Jeff replied. He had gotten a glimpse of the clock out of the corner of his eye and saw that it was definitely past time to get some kind of food in their stomachs.

"You don't have to," John quickly tried to insist. "I'm really not that hungry."

"You should still try to eat. Even if it's just a tiny bit. I don't want you to go hungry." Jeff kissed him and got up out of bed, stretching his body a bit before getting dressed. "You like pancakes?"

John gave him a small nod.

"Good because that's about one of the only things I can actually make."

John's lips twitched and he almost smiled. Given the situation, Jeff was willing to just take that and with a nod he started to leave the room.

"Jeff?"

Jeff stopped and turned around. "Yeah?"

"Thanks."

"Any time."

…

Stephanie's eyes felt extremely heavy and her head felt like it was trapped underwater. She could hear voices around her but they were extremely muffled. Part of her wanted just to float back into complete unconsciousness but the memory of being dragged out of her office slowly came back to her and it made her force her eyes open. At first she couldn't really see anything even with her eyes open. The room was much too dark. She tried blinking several times to try to make her eyes adjust to the darkness. It helped a tiny bit but it wasn't enough for her to see where the voices were coming from. She couldn't even see the shape of them. Maybe they were behind her? She didn't know. What she did know that she was in more than enough trouble. She could feel the ropes keeping her bound to the chair she was sitting on and she hadn't even tried to start struggling to get out of them because they were tied so tight. It made her want to panic but she forced that urge away as best as she could. She could NOT allow herself to panic. That was only going to get her into more trouble. She had to keep calm and just figure out a way to get out of this.

She carefully started trying to move her wrists within the ropes while trying to keep her breathing as steady and quiet as possible in hopes that her captors hadn't realized that she was awake yet. The rope was so tight that she could barely even move the slightest little bit. Whoever had tied her up had gotten a freaking gold star in knot tying. _Relax,_ she told herself when the need to panic tried to overwhelm her once more. _Just relax. There's gotta be another way-_

The lights suddenly came on and they were so bright she had to quickly shut her eyes or else be totally blinded. "Well lookie here. Our guest is awake."

Stephanie slowly cracked an eye open and came face to face with a tall, black haired man that was standing right in front of her. His accent revealed him to be English and he was just oozing in strength and arrogance. She opened her eyes the rest of the way and tried her best just to stay focused on him. There were seven other men surrounding her, all clad in black shirts with yellow boxes that had the letter N inside of them but she wouldn't allow herself to look at them. Focusing on them would just make her freak big time. "Who are you?" she kept her voice low because it made it easier for her to control her panic.

The dark haired man smirked a bit. "Wade Barrett. I'd say I was pleased to meet you but you're clearly not pleased to see me-"

"Yeah, you sort of kidnapped me," Stephanie pointed out. "Generally speaking, that don't lead to happiness."

Wade's smirk got a bit bigger. "You got a little attitude don't you? That's cute." He patted the top of her head like she was a dog before getting back up to his feet. "We ready to go live boys?"

"Yeah boss," the large, bald, overly muscled guy right next to Wade said. "We're ready when you're ready."

"Good." Wade grabbed Stephanie's chin and made her look up at him. "Smile for us darling. You're going to be a star."

Stephanie refused to smile. She just stared up at him defiantly until her head rocked to the side from a violent smack. She couldn't help the whimper of pain that escaped her and when he yanked her head back up by the hair she let out a loud yelp. "I said _smile_ for us Sunshine. Or we'll make you smile." He took a knife out of the hands of one of his men and held the blade up to the corner of her mouth.

Swallowing the lump in her throat and trembling like a leaf, Stephanie forced herself to smile.

"Good girl."

…

"How can you three be watching TV at a time like this?" Glenn asked James, Connor and Cooper. He had walked in on them watching Jerry Springer and he was just looking at them in disbelief.

James just shrugged. "I just threw a whole bunch of my hard earned money-"

"Hard earned? You don't do a damn thing for it! You have an assistant that does all the work you're supposed to do?"

James waved his hand at Glenn dismissively. "Details details. Point is, I just bribed more than enough people to keep their mouths shut about who we are. And given that I wanted that money to do other things, I feel like I deserve to get to sit down and watch my shows. And if you've got a problem with that, you can kindly get on your knees and kiss my ass."

Cooper snorted and Connor giggled maniacally. Glenn just rolled his eyes. James's day time trashy shows included Jerry Springer, Steve Wilkos and Maury and wild horses couldn't drag him away from his chair once they came on.

"Yeah, that's right Crispy, walk away," James said obnoxiously. "Walk away and leave us to-what the HELL?"

Glenn's brow furrowed and he turned around to see that Springer had been interrupted by the standard bars that showed up when shit with wrong with shows. "Awww that's just too bad isn't it?" he asked sarcastically.

"Shut up dickface!" James growled. He grabbed the remote and started flipping through the channels. "What the hell?" They were all like that. "What the fuck happened to our cable?"

Cooper shrugged. "Beats me."

"Well fucking call them and-oh wait here it…what the fuck is this?"

Glenn's eyes widened as footage of Stephanie McMahon tied to a chair with a giant spotlight shining on her. _What the fuck…_ "Mark! Tom! You better get in here for this!"

"What show is this Coopy?" Connor asked innocently.

Cooper shook his head. "I have no idea."

"Mark!" Glenn yelled again. "To-"

"We're coming we're coming!" Mark growled as he and Tom entered the room. "What the hell has gotten your panties in a bunch?"

Glenn could only point to the television in response. They all watched in a quiet shock and the only sound that could be heard for about a minute was Stephanie's shuddering breaths.

"Ladies and gentlemen, do I have your attention now?"

The bright light shining on Stephanie dimmed so that the man now standing behind her could remain hidden in the shadows. "Now, I know you're all still reeling from this latest tragedy but I hope you don't think the worst is behind you. Last night was just the beginning. We will not be stopped. We will not be denied. We will burn this city to the ground and wipe it clean, along with anyone that stands in our way." He stopped and chuckled a bit. "Now you have a decision to make: you're either Nexus, or against us."

There was five seconds of silence before a gun could be heard cocking. Nobody saw where it was but they did see Stephanie's brains getting blown out before the screen faded to black.


	33. Snuff

Wade Barrett watched as his fellow Nexus members clean up the mess that was Stephanie's body and her brains splattered all over the floor. The expression on her face was totally cool, not showing much of anything at all. Someone could say the display they just put on was excessive but he felt like it was necessary. He was all about making a huge first impression. "Come on now, hurry it up," he urged the others. "We don't have all night."

"We're going as fast as we can," David Otunga said as Skip Sheffield chopped Stephanie's body into pieces with the ax they had gotten earlier. "This isn't exactly easy shit you know."

Wade didn't give a verbal response to that. He just motioned for them to keep going. Those two in particular were the group's muscle, Skip more so than Otunga given his completely roided out appearance. Of course, about any member of the group besides him could really just be considered that. Those two, Heath Slater, Justin Gabriel, Michael Tarver, Darren Young, Daniel Bryan-they were his instruments of destruction. He was the brains of the operation. There wouldn't be a Nexus without him. Once upon a time they had been in a gang known as the NXT. They had been put through brutal initiations by the veteran members of the gang and after so much mistreatment and humiliation, he couldn't take it anymore. He was a proud man and he would not put up with that kind of degradation. So he banded together with these seven other men and not only destroyed their former gang but cut a path of destruction unlike anything seen in recent memory.

"What are we going to do with her body?" Bryan asked. Besides from Wade he was the one doing the least amount of work. Normally that would have pissed the others off but he was currently recovering from some kind of stomach virus so he was a lot more squeamish than usual. Better to just let him sit this one out rather than have a whole other mess to clean up. "I mean, we usually don't take the time to do some clean-up."

"We're not done with her yet," Wade replied shortly. That was all the details he was really willing to share at the moment. The idea he had was blossoming into a full fledged plan but he wasn't willing to share until he got it all worked out in his head.

Bryan didn't like the sound of that but he forced himself to stay silent. Out of all of them he was really the one that really didn't belong in the group. His descent into gang life had not been on purpose. A series of bad circumstances and stupid choices had gotten him to where he was now. He was trying to just make the best of this situation. He couldn't just leave, even though that was what he wanted to do really badly. This complete chaos was just not for him but he had no way out really. He was in so deep at this point that the only way out seemed to be his death.

"What now boss?" Heath asked once they were done cleaning up. His bright red hair was pulled back into a ponytail and he was hovering close to his boyfriend Justin Gabriel.

"Give me the bag," Wade said, nodding to the trash bag they had just put Stephanie's body in. "And go rest up. We're going to have a lot of work to do soon."

…

The broadcasted death of Stephanie McMahon was really the most shocking display of violence the city had seen in recent memory. The body count obviously wasn't high but the display put on was just brutal and sent the city into a tizzy. What made it an even bigger deal was who her father was. Vince McMahon was in charge of the _entire_ police department and he was not only personal friends with the mayor but a couple of senators as well. His connections got the FBI brought in to investigate this matter, which put the Saints in a hell of a predicament. The local police they were used to. FBI? That was another matter entirely.

"This is a fucking mess," Mark muttered under his breath. The Saints and Tom were gathered in the kitchen for a meeting, though it wasn't going so well so far. They really did not know what to do about this situation and they didn't have room to act anyway. McMahon and the FBI weren't fooling around and they sure as hell didn't want the targets that were on the Nexus to switch over to them.

"You've said that for forever!" Connor said. He was sitting cross legged on the floor cuddling Snoopy in his lap. "Why do you keep saying that?"

"Because it's true," Cooper replied. "Now be quiet Connor."

"Mean!"

That little yell by Connor went totally ignored. "Someone needs to throw out an idea," Matt said. "I mean really. Anything. At all. Even if it's dumb throw it out there. We gotta come up with something."

Another long period of silence. Everyone was waiting for someone else to come up with something but so far they just couldn't take the bait. Finally though, Tom just had to say something. He couldn't keep dealing with this crap. "There's really nothing that can be done," he told them. "I mean, the fucking FBI is swarming the city. If there was ever a time to just sit back and let the law just do it's job, this is it."

"I think he's right," Jeff agreed. "I mean, this is way over our heads."

"Just because the feds are here doesn't mean they're all that badass or better than the idiot pigs we've been dealing with the past few years," James pointed out. "Yeah they're here but I don't exactly have any faith in them. They're still cops."

"Yeah really," Cooper said. "We gotta get those Nexus fuckers. Fuck the FBI."

"Oh yes, fuck the FBI." Jeff rolled his eyes. "That's such a smart plan. What are you going to think of next?"

Cooper glared at him. "Look, I'm not saying we fucking go out guns a blazin' and draw attention to ourselves. That would be absolutely retarded. But we can't just sit back and do nothing. How many more people are going to have to die during the time it takes for them to do things their way? This is OUR city. We shouldn't have to give it all up completely."

"We were having ENOUGH problems when it was just Stephanie and her squad that wanted our heads," Jeff shot back. "If we come out and kill these guys, do you really think Vince and the FBI is gonna go "well, that takes care of that!"? No. They'll turn from hunting them to hunting us and then what are we going to do?"

"Not get caught," Cooper replied. "And maybe instead of making a display of these Nexus fuckers' bodies, we dispose of them and make sure they're never found again. We let the FBI do what they think they have to do and as long no bodies pop up, they'll just think that the group just left."

Glenn slowly shook his head. "Given that video we all just saw, I don't think anyone is going to believe these guys just left. It's pretty damn clear they're just getting started."

"So it's better to make sure they get stopped," James said.

Tom rolled his eyes. "Oh don't act like you've got pure intentions. We all know you just want to kill people."

"If you're not careful I'm gonna start with you-"

"Enough," Mark said, stopping that fight before it could get into full swing. "Just stop."

All eyes turned to him and now he kind of wished he hadn't spoken up. Now all the pressure was on him. "What do you think we should do?" Matt asked.

"…Let's sleep on it," Mark answered after a moment's hesitation. "Hopefully our heads will be clearer in the morning and we can figure out what to do from there."

Cooper and James both rolled their eyes but didn't argue. They just stood up and left the room, taking Connor with them. Matt, Glenn and Tom started to quietly talk amongst themselves and Jeff just gave Mark a look he knew a little too well. Mark jerked his head to the side and silently, the two of them snuck out of the room and went somewhere more private to talk.

"What's going on?" Mark asked gruffly. "You don't look so good kid."

Jeff glanced down at his feet nervously. "I need to tell you something."

"What?"

"IwantoutoftheSaints."

"What was that?" Mark hadn't understood a word of that."

Jeff took a deep breath and forced himself to look up and speak more slowly. "I want out. Of the Saints. I want out."

Mark's eyebrows shot up in surprise. He hadn't expected that to come out of Jeff's mouth. "You do?"

Jeff nodded wordlessly.

"Did you tell John or something-"

"No. I haven't told him. But I don't want to do this anymore. I want to be with him but there's no way it'll work if I stay here. I feel like I would be lying all the time and I can't do that. I won't tell him about you guys I swear but I want out."

Mark sighed. He could tell Jeff was completely serious and he wasn't sure how he felt about that. He really didn't want to see Jeff go but if this was what Jeff really wanted, there wasn't much he could do. "I can't stop you," he finally said. "Make sure this is what you really want before you make any move to go-and YOU are telling the others. Not me."

Jeff swallowed nervously and nodded. "You're not mad at me are you?"

Mark shook his head and squeezed his shoulder reassuringly. "Never. You do what you have to do. If the others give you too much shit, I'll back you up."

"Thanks Mark."

"Any time."

…

The next morning, Vince McMahon and his family received Stephanie's dismembered body on their front step. Two hours later, a bomb went off in the middle of the very crowded mall, killing over sixty people and injuring dozens more. The Nexus invasion was in full swing.


	34. Battlefield

"Holy fuck," Mark said under his breath as he, Tom and Glenn walked down one of the many empty streets. In all of his time living here he had never seen anything like this. The city had bounced back from unbelievable violence again and again and again yet this time that hadn't been the case. The people that hadn't evacuated yet were hiding inside their houses, too afraid to come out. "This is unbelievable."

"Tell me about it," Tom agreed. Glenn said absolutely nothing. He just surveyed the streets with his jaw clenched firmly shut. "What the fuck are we gonna do?"

"How many more times are we gonna ask this question?" Glenn said irritably. "Fucking all we ever say anymore." He did have a good point there."

Tom went to snap at him but stopped when Mark put his hand up to silence him. "What? You got something insightful to say?"

"Doubt it," Glenn muttered, which got him quite the nasty glare from Mark.

"What do we know about the Nexus?" Mark was using the tone of voice that indicated he already had everything he was about to say worked out in his head and he was going to try to lead Tom and Glenn through the conversation like a couple of small children.

"They're named after a brand of shampoo," Tom answered, which made Glenn smirk and Mark rolled his eyes.

"Besides from that smartass."

"Their leader looks like he came out of James Bond movie." Great. Now Glenn was being a smartass. How wonderful.

"What's their pattern so far? First they attacked that bar-mass casualties and chaos. Then they took Stephanie and slaughtered her on TV-low casualty but it caused a lot of panic because it showed that the incident at the bar wasn't a random act of violence. And now with the mall it shows that they're not going to stop."

"What's your point big brother?" Glenn asked impatiently.

"Fucking chaos you dumb mother fucker!" Mark said that louder than he meant to though it didn't really matter. There wasn't anyone around to hear them. "They're causing chaos. CONTROLLED chaos. THEY are the puppet masters, hitting this entire fucking city where it's gonna cause the most panic. First a public place, then a public execution of an authority figure, then another public place-"

"So you think they're going to go after another authority figure?" Tom guessed.

Mark nodded. "I think so."

Glenn didn't look entirely convinced. "If they're really going for chaos, how can you be sure they're going to do that? Seems too neat of a pattern to be truly chaotic."

"That's why I said it was _controlled_ chaos," Mark replied. "Besides, what else are they going to do? The city's pretty much shut down. Nobody's going anywhere unless they're leaving. The people that stayed are putting their hopes in the FBI and the cops. Mayor Bischoff pretty much declared war on them on the news the other day. If they really want to take over, they have to go after the people that want to take them down. You know, so there's nobody else in their path."

Tom and Glenn looked at each other. That was pretty logical when it was put that way. "Soooo…does that mean we're saying to hell with the FBI and going after them then?" Tom asked. As of before they left, they had all still been arguing with whether or not they should get involved or not.

Mark pursed his lips and thought about it for a moment. "Well I'm going to at least," he finally said. "I'm not going to make the rest of you do it but I know I've fought way too hard and long to save this city to let it go to hell now."

Tom and Glenn looked at each other. Now that Mark had made that decision, it was pretty much a fact that the rest of them would follow his lead as well. They always said they really didn't have a leader but that wasn't really the truth. When push came to shove and they didn't know what to do, they defaulted to Mark for guidance. "So who do you think they'll go after next?" Tom asked. "FBI, cops or the mayor?"

Mark shrugged. "My gut's telling me the mayor but-"

"Why him?" Glenn asked.

"He's the most vulnerable."

"He's got himself surrounded-"

"By total buffoons. They won't be able to protect him from shit. Plus, think about it. With the fucking pigs trying to get hot on their trail, why not taunt them by killing someone so important right under their noses? That's what I would do if I was fucking evil like that."

Glenn tilted his head slightly to the side. "You've thought way too much about this."

"Yeah…" Mark admitted sheepishly "just a little bit."

…

"Jeff?" Matt called out, going upstairs because he hadn't found his brother anywhere downstairs. Mark, Glenn and Tom had come home and told them all what they wanted to do. They had all said they didn't have to go along with it but of course they were. They couldn't just let those three do this on their own. They were all in it together and now he had to tell Jeff since he had been the only one not around to hear the plan. "Jeff you here?" He knocked on his younger brother's door, wandering if he had left without him realizing it.

"Come in," Jeff said from inside the room.

Matt entered the room and found Jeff sitting on his bed, his knees pulled up to his chest and his eyes absently staring at the TV. "What is it?" He walked over to the bed and sat down next to him. "What's the matter?" His brotherly instincts were going into overdrive, demanding him to find out was the matter with him and fix it somehow.

Jeff tried to lie and shake his head. "Nothing. I'm fine."

"You don't look fine." Matt reached over and grabbed the remote. "Come on, you can tell me." He turned off the TV and put the remote back down. "I can't help you unless you tell me."

Jeff shook his head again. "It's not really something you can help me with Matt. It's just…I gotta tell everyone something and I don't think it's going to go over very well."

Matt frowned. "What is it?"

"I'm…I want to leave you guys. Stop being one of the Saints."

Matt's eyes widened. That hadn't been what he had been expecting to hear. "Are you serious?"

Jeff nodded. He shrank back a bit because he was expecting Matt to be angry. "I just can't do it anymore. I've been thinking and thinking about it and I just…I need to do this. Get away from it. I love you guys to death and all but I gotta do this for me."

Matt took that in, trying to absorb it all before he spoke again. "Have you told anyone else?"

"Mark. That's it though. I wasn't sure how to tell everyone else." Jeff swallowed nervously and gave Matt a nervous look. "You mad?"

"Mad?" Matt shook his head and put his hand on Jeff's shoulder. "No. Never. If you gotta do this then do it. I support you." He had a feeling this had to do with Jeff's budding relationship with Cena but he didn't say anything about it. So what if it was? Jeff was probably doing what was best for him in that aspect. And if it was going to make him happy in the long run, Matt refused to stand in his way. He knew Jeff deserved happiness wherever he could get it."

Jeff smiled in relief. "Thanks bro." He knocked his forehead against his Matt's. "You think you could tell-"

"Oh I'm not telling the others. That's your job. I'll back you up though, I promise."

"Thanks."

"Any time."

…

Cooper pushed his little janitor's cart along, hating the disguise with a fiery passion. Everyone except Jeff and Connor had drawn straws to see who was going to go into the mayor's office in disguise and see if they could find anything suspicious and he was the one who had lost. The others were all watching the building from the outside but that wasn't really a comfort if the building exploded right here and now. "Please no bombs please no bombs please no bombs please no bombs…" he chanted under his breath. He had no idea what the fuck he was supposed to be looking for. "Anything suspicious" was a little too vague for his taste. What, was he supposed to find a bomb laying around waiting to be disconnected? It wasn't like he knew what all these guys looked like. He was walking fucking blind in here.

He turned the corner and ran into another janitor who was pushing his cart along. His eyes widened, figuring he was hosed…then he saw that the guy had the exact same look he did on his face. He was pretty short with short blonde hair and a look that said 'Fuck me I'm hosed', which raised an alarm in his head. "Hey!" He wiped his first look on his face and gave the smaller man a hard glare. "Who are you?"

The man panicked and took off running, shoving his car at Cooper so it would hit his legs. Cooper knocked it out of the way and took off after him. The man was a bit faster but Cooper's long legs worked better to his advantage. He almost had him at one point but someone stepped out of their office and got right in his way, making him crash into them and send them both down to the floor. "Fucking MOVE!" he shouted angrily. He scrambled back up to his feet and resumed the chase, seeing the blonde man go through a set of doors up ahead. He went through them himself and saw that they lead to a winding staircase that the other man was near the bottom of. Without thinking he launched himself over the railing, attempting to land on his feet so he could cut the other man off. That wasn't what happened. He landed on his feet initially but then slipped and rolled the rest of the way down to the floor. He lay there for a moment, stunned and bruised with a loud ringing in his ears. At first he thought it was from him hitting his head but then realized it was coming from the emergency exit. He forced himself back up to his feet and went out it himself, spotting the other man sprinting down the back alley. "Hey!" He forced himself to run as fast as he could so he could try to catch up. "HEY!"

The man didn't slow down. He just kept going, making a sharp left up ahead. Cooper tried to keep following him when a loud boom about killed his ears and the force of the explosion knocked him down to the ground and made him bash his head hard against the cold cement


	35. The Static Age

The explosion that went off literally rocked the entire block and sent the Saints falling back with an unbelievable ringing in their ears. James put his hands over his and groaned, though he didn't hear himself do it. He slowly stood back up, shaking his head and trying to regain his bearings. Smoke invaded his nostrils and he looked up to see what building had gone up in pieces. To his horror, it was the very building that Cooper was supposed to be in. "COOPER!" His voice cracked as he screamed and his heart skipped too many beats to count. "COOPER!" He ran towards the burning building, ignoring anyone that could have been calling out for him to stop. He wouldn't have heard them anyway. There was only the ringing in his ears and his heart pounding so hard inside of his chest that it was going up his throat. This couldn't be happening. This had to be some kind of nightmare. He shouldn't have let Cooper go into that fucking building. What in the world had he been thinking?

He tried to run even faster but the heavy smoke coming from the flames made it next to impossible to breathe. He had to stop and double over coughing before he could try to go even closer. His eyes were watering up uncontrollably due to all the smoke, which made it even harder to see. Maybe Cooper got out before the explosion. Maybe he got out like the back or something, where James wouldn't have seen him right away. That was about the only hope that James had to cling to and he was trying desperately to do so. It was hard though. With the one surge of hope came about a million doubts to kill it.

"James! James!" The sound of his own name being called was completely muffled but it did register somewhere in the back of his mind. It didn't mean that he stopped to see who it was or what they possibly could want. He just kept right on going until someone actually grabbed him to try to make him stop. "Get OFF!" he growled, doing his best to yank himself out of their grip.

"He's not in there!" Matt said, trying desperately to make James stop before he got much closer. His own head was pounding like crazy and he was barely holding back a coughing fit of his own. "He's not there!"

"I-"

"JAMES! He's NOT in there! Come here!" Matt used every little bit of strength he had to drag James back into the alley Cooper was in. He, Tom and Glenn had been hanging around the back keeping watch and he had spotted Cooper chasing someone through the alley before the explosion had went off. "See?" He got James back into the alley, where Glenn and Tom were trying to get Cooper to regain consciousness. "He was chasing someone and hit his head when the bomb-"

"Fucking CHRIST!" The relief that swept through James made him weak in his knees and he nearly stumbled and fell face first as he rushed to Cooper's side. "Move it," he growled, shoving Tom right out of the way as he knelt down beside his still unconscious son. "Cooper? Cooper can you hear me?"

"He's unconscious you idiot," Tom snapped, not at all pleased at the way he had just been pushed over just now. "He can't-"

"Shut up," James growled. He was NOT in the mood right now, to say the very least. This idea had been fucking stupid. Nobody should have let Mark come up with this dumbass plan. "Fucking everything will be fine he said," he said under his breath, his face twisting into a sneer as he double checked to make sure Cooper had a pulse. "It'll be fine we just have to do it to cut these guys off. Well LOOK how this fucking worked out! The mayor is not only deader than a god damn doornail but deep fried as well, and Cooper nearly went with him! Fucking BULLSHIT right here!"

Matt winced and looked at Glenn, who was just shaking his head. There was going to be no reasoning with him. Once James was pissed, that was it. There really wasn't much calming him back down. "James-"

"Ugh…" Cooper groaned and slowly opened his eyes. "Dad?"

"Oh thank Christ," James said under his breath. "I'm here."

"Nothing got blown off me right?"

"No. You're in one piece. Probably concussed but in one piece."

"Huh…" Cooper slipped back into unconsciousness and James carefully picked him up, any softness in his gaze slipping completely away as he glared at Matt and the others.

"We're going. Now."

Tom shook his head as he, Glenn and Matt followed him. "Bastard acts like WE caused that explosion."

"Just don't even get started with him," Glenn replied, keeping his voice down so James wouldn't hear him. "God only knows what the fuck he'll do if you make it worse."

"Lawson!" Mark had a hold of Connor's arm to keep him from going off. Police, firefighters and ambulances were all coming to the scene. "What-"

"You stupid son of a BITCH!" Since he was holding Cooper and didn't have a free hand, he kicked Mark square in the nuts instead. Mark's eyes about popped out of his head and he doubled over on to the ground, holding his crotch and groaning in pain. "You and your STUPID ass plan about got him killed!"

"Coopy!" Connor's jaw dropped and he began practically climbing all over James to fuss over his brother. "Daddy Daddy Daddy is he going to be okay? Is he going to be okay is he Daddy?"

"He'll be fine," James said, mostly just to get Connor to be quiet. "Just get in the car. We gotta get out of here." With the panic and chaos going on around them, they were lucky nobody had really zeroed in on them yet. That was the last thing they needed at the moment.

Connor dutifully trotted back to the car and James followed him, carefully laying Cooper down in the back before getting in the driver's seat. Tom and Matt got in next and Glenn dragged Mark back to his feet before pushing him so James could take off like a bat out of hell.

…

"You alright mate?" Wade asked Bryan, who was still trying to catch his breath. Bryan had run all the way back to their hideout, positive he was still being followed. That didn't seem to be the case, though to be safe Sheffield and Otunga were taking extra sweeps around to make sure.

Bryan nodded and took an extra long drink of the water that had been given to him. "Yeah. I'm fine."

Wade nodded and put his hand on his shoulder. He hadn't really cared that much about how Bryan was doing but he pretended for the sake of getting Bryan back on track with business. "Now do you think he was the actual janitor?"

Bryan shook his head. "I don't know. I mean, he could have been…but why would he chase me that far if he was?" He took another drink of water. "He didn't really look like a janitor either."

"And you do?" Heath couldn't help but ask. He and Justin were sitting side by side, watching this conversation go down.

"More so than this guy. He looked kind of like one of those emo rocker kids. Something didn't fit."

Justin and Heath mulled that over and then looked at Wade, who had a thoughtful expression on his face. "What do you think boss?" Justin asked.

Wade smirked a bit. "I think our boy Daniel here ran into one of those infamous Saints we've been hearing so much about. I've been wondering when they were going to show their faces."

"The Saints?" Heath snorted and ran a hand through his bright hair. "Maaaan we gotta take care of those fools."

"No shit, you imbecile," Wade snapped.

"What are we going to do?" Bryan asked, already not liking whatever plan could be forming in Wade's mind. Nothing else that had come from him had been any good at all and he was sure the diabolical man could come up with stuff even worse if he really set his mind to it.

Wade just smirked. "We'll keep on course gentlemen. Put enough pressure on the lads and wait for them to get desperate enough to expose themselves."

"And what then?"

Wade gave Heath an annoyed look for asking such a question with such an obvious answer. "We KILL them-and then the city will really be ours."


	36. Almost Easy

The first thing Cooper saw when he woke up was James and Connor hovering over him, completely violating his personal space. "Oh god…" he blinked several times, letting out a loud groan as the pain in his head began to truly take hold. "Fucking Christ." He blinked several more times, trying to clear the cobwebs out of his mind. "What happened?"

"Building went boom!" Connor informed him. "It went boom Coopy it did. We were waiting for you and then it went-" he paused to take a deep breath and stretch his arms out dramatically "BOOM!" He nodded along happily to his own story. "It was a big boom Coopy it was. It knocked you out and made us think that you were dead."

Cooper looked to James, who nodded his head. This wasn't Connor just making up crap; this really did happen. "Fuck…" he put his hand on his forehead and winced at the throbbing. No wonder he felt like such shit. Though feeling this bad was better than being in pieces. That was something at any rate. "Anyone dead?"

"The people IN the building," James answered. "Mayor's gone. Lots of other people too. Fucking mess." He ran a hand through his hair and took a long puff of his cigarette. "Things are getting crazy. National guard has been brought in. We're pretty much in a lockdown right now. Nobody can get in or out of the city."

"What?" Despite the throbbing Cooper made himself sit up. "Are you serious?" He shook his head as James nodded. "What the hell man? What about the people that want to escape? You know, to a fucking safer place?"

"They don't want Nexus getting out to cause more damage anywhere else," James said, taking another long puff of his cigarette. "They want to keep it contained and get him here before they do anymore damage anywhere else."

"So nobody fucking cares if we all die?" Cooper's voice was rising in disgust. "Dad this is fucking insane! They're bringing this whole place to the fucking ground! If something doesn't change soon we're going to have full fucking anarchy we can't-"

"I KNOW Cooper," James said sharply, cutting him off. "I didn't say I supported this plan. I didn't even make it. I'm just telling you what's going on."

Cooper knew that. It still didn't change the fact that it sucked though. The only way this could turn out remotely okay was if the National Guard could catch the Nexus right away and end this whole thing. If they didn't then one of two things were going to happen: one was that everyone would stay inside and hide while the Nexus blew the National Guard to smithereens like they were doing with everyone else. The other was that the people would rise up in a panic and shit would get even crazier. The air was already thick with fear and desperation; it wasn't going to take much more to make this powder keg completely explode.

…

The second option that occurred to Cooper wasn't too far off base. With the military so heavily involved, the people wanted a capture or a kill and they wanted it immediately. That wasn't what was happening though. The military was trying so hard to maintain complete order that they were inadvertently pissing off the whole city. Despite it not being safe and the need for a lockdown people were going out on the street to demand more action be done. The soldiers were trying their best to just get everyone back inside their homes, which didn't go over the greatest; a riot really was brewing at this point. The news was all over it, covering it all day at this point. Randy, Evan, Matt, Glenn and Cooper were all sitting around watching it two days later, silent and stone face at the stuff they were seeing on the screen.

"Fucking unbelievable," Randy finally managed to say. The silence had really started to bother him he had to break it. "Anyone else feel like a sitting duck right now?"

Evan nodded in agreement. He was on the couch with Matt, snuggled up next to him with his legs tucked up by his chest. "This is horrible. What the hell are we going to do?"

Nobody had an answer for him. Glenn, Cooper and Matt all exchanged looks but didn't say a word. Evan and Randy didn't know about them being part of the Saints so they had to watch what they said right now. They did need to figure out something though. Cooper was really wishing he had been able to catch that guy he had been chasing. If he could have gotten his hands on him they could have pumped him for information about the rest of the Nexus and have a better idea of what kind of plan to come up with. As of now though, they could only be on the lookout. Cooper had given the others as good of a description of the guy as he could manage and Mark, James and Glenn were going to try to get out to do some kind of patrol to see if he popped up anywhere else. Unfortunately, none of them saw how that was going to do much good at all. They were just fooling themselves into believing that they weren't the sitting ducks that they actually were.

…

"How are you holding up?" Jeff asked John over the phone. He was up in his room, hiding out from the others so they wouldn't overhear him talking to the other man. He still hadn't told everybody about him leaving the Saints. Given everything that was happening, he just couldn't seem to find the right time to do it. He needed to find a way to do it soon. He couldn't just keep putting it off. Though it really didn't help that he didn't have John to turn to at the moment. Given the state of things, John was pretty much stuck at work twenty four hours a day until further notice. He hadn't been able to even call just now and he was technically supposed to be resting up.

"Eh…I'm doing it," John replied. He sounded beyond exhausted. Jeff felt bad just for having him on the phone when he clearly needed to be sleeping. "Just gotta keep going on. It's worse if I dwell on stuff too much, you know?"

Jeff nodded along. "Yeah I guess. You're staying safe though, right?"

"As safe as I can be given the circumstances. How about you?"

"Same."

"I've been worried about you."

Jeff smiled weakly. "I've worried more about you. You're the one out there during all this."

"I'm gonna be fine. Don't worry about me okay?" John shouldn't be promising this kind of thing. He had no idea if he was going to be fine at all but he couldn't stand to have Jeff worrying about him. He wanted to put him at ease and make him believe that everything was going to be fine. It was like if he convinced Jeff then it would somehow be true. "Jeff? Don't worry alright? I'll be okay. I'm gonna come see you as soon as I get away, kay?"

Jeff nodded even though John couldn't see him doing so. "Okay," he agreed. "I love you."

"I love you too." They reluctantly hung up and Jeff put his phone aside, staring at the wall for a few moments before curling up in a ball on his bed and closing his eyes, worrying himself sick despite the promise he had just made.

…

Connor was bored out of his mind. He hated having to stay inside. He wanted to go outside more than anything but everyone was making him stay inside. It wasn't safe to be outside anymore. That was what they told him. Yet they still were going outside, supposedly hunting for Nexus. He wasn't allowed to do shit though. Not go out and hunt, not go out and play-it was completely unfair and he didn't want to stand for it anymore. In the midst of dinner preparations he snuck out of the house, leaving his pets behind because they were asleep and they would make too much noise if he woke them up to take them too.

Once he was outside he started to run, glancing back every so often to see if anyone was following him. He didn't see anyone so he just kept running, going right to the park that was near their house. It was completely empty of course. Everyone was either hiding in their homes or stalking the Guard, yelling at them to do more. Connor didn't give a shit though. He was okay with it being empty. He didn't need other people he just needed the stuff.

He let out a loud whoop as he ran at the equipment, climbing all over the place. He got up on the monkey bars and hung upside down from them, completely unaware of who was coming towards him until it was too late.

"Connor!"

Connor's eyes widened in surprise and he slipped and fell off the monkey bars. He just barely managed to turn his body so he landed on his chest and stomach as opposed to his head and neck. "C-C-Coopy?"

"What the HELL do you think you're doing?"

Connor just sighed and pouted his lips. Great, he was in trouble. How glorious.

…

Heath came to a stop at a stop sign and ran his hand through his fiery red hair. He was bored as hell. Wade had sent him, Justin and Bryan out disguised as delivery boys to get a scope of the city and what was going. Problem was, unless the people were out directly harassing the National Guard, there really was nothing. Business were closed and people were hiding in their homes. They had the whole city terrified. "Anyone else just want to call it a day?" he asked.

Justin looked like he wanted to nod but stopped himself. "Won't Wade get pissed?"

Heath shrugged even though he knew that would be the case. "We'll just tell him-"

"Guys," Bryan said, completely interrupting. He tapped on the window, pointing out towards the park. "There. Look."

Heath and Justin both looked and saw two young men at the park. The older one was pulling the younger one up to his feet and dragging him off clearly against his will. "What about them?" Justin asked.

"The one doing the dragging is one of the Saints. He was the one posing as the janitor."

Heath's eyes widened. "Are you sure?"

"Positive," Bryan confirmed.

"Fucking score." Heath pulled out his phone to call Wade. He was DEFINITELY going to want to know about this.


	37. You Know You're Right

"How much longer are you going to keep putting it off?" Matt asked Jeff. The two of them, along with Mark were making dinner while the others were all in the living room. Randy and Evan had gone home, leaving just the Saints there to have yet another conversation about what needed to be done. They were pretty much talking around in circles at this point. They were all tired of it but Mark was swearing he had some kind of plan this time. What it was Jeff didn't know and he didn't want to know. When he had said he wanted leave the Saints, he had meant it. He just didn't know how to break it to everyone else right now, considering the circumstances. And it really didn't help that Matt was now on his ass to just get it out in the open.

"I don't know," Jeff finally said, hoping that would be good enough. It wasn't though. The moment he said it he saw the look in Matt's eyes and knew he was in for a lecture. He tried to bite back the groan dying to get out of him but it was hard. He knew Matt well but it was annoying all the same.

"You can't just not ever tell them," Matt said, already starting in. He handed Mark the wooden spoon he needed to stir the spaghetti sauce and then snagged a knife so he could start cutting up vegetables. "You'll have to do it sooner or later."

"I know."

"Mark and I aren't gong to tell them for you."

"I KNOW Matt," Jeff snapped. He didn't mean to snap but he couldn't help himself. A lecture was not what he needed right now. He was already sick with worry over John and his safety. Last thing he wanted to do was worry about how the others would react to his news. He didn't think they would take it as well and maturely as Matt and Mark did. Well, Glenn probably would as would Tom…James, Cooper and Connor he wasn't so sure about. He already knew that they would call him out on leaving because of John and that just wasn't an argument that he was wanting to have at the moment.

"Leave him alone," Mark grunted at Matt, coming to Jeff's aid. "He'll tell them when he's ready. Nagging him isn't going to help."

"I wasn't nagging," Matt claimed, which made both Mark and Jeff snort and roll their eyes. "I wasn't!" He frowned as they just gave him disbelieving looks. "Was I?"

"Yes," Mark replied.

"You always do," Jeff added. "It's your specialty."

"Well I don't MEAN to," Matt said in his defense. He chopped up the onions they were going to add to the sauce and slid them over to Mark to put in. "And I have a point you know. The sooner you just tell them, the better it'll be."

"You really think I should tell them NOW?" Jeff asked. "With all this shit going on?" He shook his head at his own question. "No. We've all got enough to worry about now I don't need to add on to it."

Matt sighed and ran a hand through his dark curly hair. "I know that. But still…I mean the others are gonna start noticing that you're like avoiding this whole situation. And they'll want to know why and then you'll HAVE to tell them your leaving."

"You know, I'd hate to admit it but he has a point," Mark pointed out as Jeff cringed. "As dumb as the idiots in there are" he nodded towards the direction of the living room as he said that "even they will catch on to you."

"Who's side are you on?" Jeff asked in exasperation. He didn't want to admit it but he knew they were right. He wished they weren't but they were, as usual.

"I ain't on anybody's side," Mark replied. "This isn't about sides. This is about what has to happen. And Matt's right about this one."

"Can we just not talk about this right now?" Jeff asked, giving them both a pleading look. "Please?"

Matt and Mark exchanged looks, clearly not thrilled with him. "Whatever man," Matt said, deciding just to give up the fight for the moment. "Just know I'm right."

Jeff said nothing and just continued setting the table.

…

Connor frowned and cocked his head to the side. He had been standing outside the kitchen door this whole time without anyone being aware of it and he had overheard everything. He didn't really get it though. All the talk about Jeff leaving confused him. He certainly hadn't been told about it and from the sounds of it, it was supposed to be a secret-which confused him even more. He didn't understand how Jeff could want to leave them. He was supposed to be their friend why would he leave? And why weren't Mark and Matt trying to talk him out of it? Pouting his lower lip, he crept away from the door and went back towards the living room. Maybe Cooper would understand this better than he did.

…

"Are you sure this is the place?" Wade asked as he observed the house from a distance. The news had come to him that the Saints' hideout had been found and they were now watching the place.

"Oh yeah," Heath assured him. "We watched them go in."

"How many did you see again?"

"Does it really matter?" Skip asked.

"If the boss asked, it matters," Otunga told him, ever the suck-up. Darren nodded along with that and Wade gave the three of them an annoyed look before looking to Heath, Justin or Bryan for an answer.

"We only saw the two," Justin said. "I'm assuming the rest are all-OW!" Wade just smacked him upside the head. "What the hell was that for?"

"NEVER assume," Wade growled, poking his finger threateningly into Justin's chest. "Not on a matter such as this." This was too important of a thing to just make assumptions. They weren't dealing with the cops or ordinary citizens. These were the Saints, who had built quite the reputation for themselves taking down the so called "evil" of the city. He personally thought they were a bunch of wankers that fancied themselves heroes but it was hard to argue with their results. Whether anyone liked it or not, the vigilantes had helped to keep the city standing when it should have ripped itself a part years ago.

"So what do we do Boss?" Heath asked.

Wade eyed the house carefully for a moment before answering. "We keep scoping the place. See how many more are there."

"And then what?" Bryan asked.

"We burn the bloody place to the ground."

…

"What do you mean Jeff's leaving?" Cooper asked as he gave Connor a disbelieving look. Connor had come into the room and announced the big news as fast as he possibly could. Unfortunately for him, nobody was able to explain anything to him because all he managed to do was confuse them. "Are you even sure you heard that right?"

"Uh huh!" Connor said, nodding his head in an over the top manner. "That's what they said. "Matt said Jeff had to tell us and Mark did too but Jeff don't want to right now."

Cooper frowned and looked at the others. Tom was kicked back in the chair, drinking a beer while James was on the floor playing with Snoopy and Glenn was sitting on the couch furthest away from the door. Tom and Glenn looked mildly surprised and James…well he didn't actually look like he cared too much at the moment. Maybe Snoopy was really that distracting or maybe he had been in the loop and didn't tell the rest of them. "What do you guys think?" he asked. "Think he's going for real?"

James snorted. "He's dating some goody two shoes cop. You really thought he would stick around with us much longer?"

"Did you KNOW something about this and not tell us?" Tom asked.

"No I didn't KNOW per say but this isn't exactly a shock," James replied. "Come on, just think about it. He wants to be with the guy and he thinks that separating from us now will make everything work out. Never mind what the guy will think if he ever found out what Jeff USED to do." He pulled Snoopy on to his lap and hugged him tight. "Jeff thinks by quitting us he'll automatically get the happy ending he's searching for. He don't get that it's not that simple."

Everyone just stared at him, bewildered that all of that came out of James. "Did he really just say something insightful?" Tom asked Glenn.

Glenn nodded, eyeing James like he had never seen him before in his life. "Yeah, he did. Be afraid. Be very afraid."

James rolled his eyes. "Fuck you guys." He ruffled the top of Snoopy's head and then let him go over to Connor. "See if I ever-" he paused as something caught his eye. The others all looked over to see Jeff had just walked into the room.

"Dinner's almost re-" Jeff froze as he realized that everyone was looking at him. "What?"

Cooper took a deep breath, trying to decide if he should say something now or save it for later. Unfortunately, the hesitation cost him because James opened his big mouth.

"So when are you officially leaving us for your lover boy?"

Jeff froze at those words. He clearly hadn't expected that. Connor scowled and went up to him and kicked him in the shin as hard as he could. "MEAN! Why would you leave us?"

"Connor!" Cooper growled, getting up to reel Connor back.

"You're mean I hate you!" Connor tried to kick Jeff again but Cooper ripped him back but the damage was still done. Jeff looked like a deer in the headlights and the way James, Tom and Glenn were all just looking at him didn't help. There was a long awkward silence before Jeff bailed out the front door, letting it slam right behind him.

…

Wade heard the door slam and he barely managed to duck behind the porch with Skip as a young man with blue and purple hair stormed out of the house. His hand reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter, heading their direction and making them duck around more. He looked very upset about something and Wade watched him with great interest. His plan had been stake out the place and then burn it to the ground when everyone inside was sleeping but now he had a different plan. A Saint was so unwittingly walking right to them-they had to capitalize. He looked to Skip who nodded before grabbing the young man by the back of the neck and smashing his head into the tree, effectively knocking him unconscious so he could be swung over Skip's shoulder and carried away.


	38. Little Too Late

"Jeff?" Tom stepped outside and looked around, expecting to see Jeff sulking out there by himself over what had happened. Matt and Mark were fighting with the others about it but he had chosen to slip away from them to check on Jeff. He had known the younger man for quite awhile now and knew that he wasn't exactly the greatest at handling situations like this. He took things very personally and could hold a grudge for a long time if he saw fit to. "Jeff?"

No answer. Tom frowned and went down the steps of the back porch, looking all around for any sign of Jeff. There was none to be found. "Jeff?" Shit. He must have taken off. He had done that plenty of times before. He would go off and hide out for hours at a time, not answering his phone no matter how many times they called him and very rarely ever disclosing where he was after coming back. It was a rather annoying habit but one they had come to expect and reluctantly accept from him.

With a sigh Tom went back into the house to see how things were going in there. It wasn't any better from when he had gone outside in the first place. Mark and Matt were standing across from James, Cooper and Connor while Glenn tried to stay towards the middle and be neutral. "What the hell did we tell you about eavesdropping?" Mark asked Connor angrily. "We told you NOT to do it! We've told you not to do it like a MILLION times now! Why can't you listen?"

"I do listen!" Connor said with a whine.

"Oh yeah? Since when?" Mark was getting on a roll and not looking to stop now. "When have you started listening because I would REALLY like to know about it! God damn brat you fucking open your big mouth-"

"Would you STOP?" James snapped with narrowed eyes. "Don't fucking yell at him just because Jeff don't have the balls to tell us he's leaving. Maybe if HE had come clean sooner-"

"Don't put this on my brother!" Matt interrupted, stepping up to James with both his fists balled.

"I'll put this on to whoever the fuck I want to!" James shot back. He got up to his feet and got right back in Matt's face. He was nearly a foot taller than Matt was and much stronger. If this broke down into a fist fight Matt didn't have a good chance of winning at all. "The fact that we even have to overhear something like this is complete and total bullshit."

"Fuck yeah it is," Cooper piped in. He patted the pouting Connor on the shoulder. "Aren't we Jeff's friends too? Shouldn't we get to know stuff like this?"

"Maybe he was afraid you guys would react crazy," Tom said, speaking up even though it was against his brain's better judgment. Glenn gave him quite the look when he said something and he knew that he thought he was dumb for doing it as well. His relationship with the Lawsons tended to be volatile at best. "You know, kind of how like you're doing now."

"The only reason we're reacting "crazy" is because someone just can't fucking tell us to our faces shit that we kind of need to know," James snapped, his green eyes narrowing and glaring at Tom now. "We're supposed to be in this shit together and if he can't tell us something as big as this, then we clearly have serious problems."

"Yeah really." Glenn took them all by surprise by agreeing with James but he quickly brushed it aside. "Look, yelling at each other isn't gonna do shit, now is it?" Nobody offered up a way that it would help and he nodded in satisfaction at that before looking at Tom. "Where's Jeff?"

"Gone," Tom replied. "Long gone. He took off."

"Fuck," Matt said with a groan. He ran a hand through his hair and shook his head. "We gotta find him."

"Where would we even start to look?" Cooper asked. "We can never find him when he takes off like this. Not when he doesn't want to be found."

"I don't care what he wants right now," Matt said stubbornly. "We can't let him stay out on his own. Not with the fucking Nexus out there."

Tom cringed at that thought. Fuck. He hadn't even thought of that when he had been out there looking for Jeff. "Matt's right. We gotta find him." They couldn't just let him stay out there on his own. Even if there wasn't a way for Nexus to know who they were (that he could think of at the moment), it still wasn't safe for him to be out on his own. He could still end up in pieces if Nexus felt like blowing something else up.

"Cooper, you and Connor stay here in case he comes back." Mark was barking out orders without even waiting for the others to agree with what Matt and Tom were saying. There wasn't time for this to be a democracy. "Glenn, Matt, Tom, you guys are gonna go one way and James and I are gonna go the other." Yes that was actually his plan. Jeff could literally be anywhere so splitting up and looking at every possible place was about the only good plan he had. He would split them up even further but given the state of things, he wasn't going to risk spreading them that thin. The fact that Jeff was by himself was worrisome enough in itself; he wasn't going to add to it.

…

Jeff woke up to ice cold water being poured directly on to his face. He woke up with a start, the frigid water filling his eyes, mouth and nose, making him choke. His head was absolutely killing him but he could hardly focus on that when he was practically drowning.

"There we are," a deep British voice said with an evil chuckle. The owner of the voice let Jeff's hair go and patted him on the back as he coughed and tried to spit up the water that had gone down his throat. "Rise and shine mate."

"Ugh…" Jeff continued to gag and sputter as he blinked his eyes rapidly to get the water out of them. The pain in his head was starting to really hit him and it hurt so bad that it made him sick to his stomach. The cold water was making him shiver and he coughed some more before looking up and seeing that he was surrounded by eight guys. Oh fuck…Nexus. He gulped and tried to bolt, only then realizing that he was tied to a chair. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck this wasn't good. This wasn't good at all.

"Nice to see that you've joined us." The smirk on Wade Barrett's face was getting bigger by the second. The other Nexus members stood around and with the exception of the smallest guy there they were all grinning like idiot henchmen. Jeff gulped again and looked around at them, trying to remain as calm as he could. It was almost impossible though. He was completely fucked and both he and they knew it.

"Wh-what do you want with me?" he finally asked, shrinking back into his chair as much as he possibly could.

"What do we want…" Wade pretended to think that one over carefully. "Oh I don't know. Pint of ale, some beautiful women, you and the rest of the Saints lined up in a row-"

"Saints?" This was worse than Jeff thought. If they knew he was one of them then that probably meant they knew about the others too. "What are you talking about I'm not-"

"Skip," Wade said with a roll of his eyes.

The huge bald man backhanded Jeff so hard across the face that the chair fell over and he hit his head on the floor. He cried out in pain and found himself being yanked back up so hard and fast it made him dizzy.

"Don't play dumb with us," Wade hissed, grabbing Jeff's chin with his thumb and pointer finger and digging his nails into the soft flesh. "We know who you are. We know where you live. We've seen all your little friends." The smirk returned to his face. "I have to say you're an interesting little bunch. You even have a…a special one." He chuckled lightly. "How progressive of you."

Jeff nervously flicked his tongue and licked his bottom lip. "If you know who we are then why didn't you kill us?"

"Oh we were going to," Wade admitted. "But uh…it's not always just about death. It's about making a statement." He pointed his finger on to Jeff's chest. "And your deaths will mean nothing if the entire world doesn't know who you are." He patted Jeff's cheeks a couple of times condescendingly. "And you don't want to die for nothing now do you?"

Jeff responded by spitting in Wade's face. Maybe not the smartest of ideas but he had to show some form of defiance. Wade's face twisted into disgust and he slowly wiped the spittle away with the back of his hand. "Lovely." He whacked Jeff really good across the face before turning his back on him. "We go public within the hour. Until then…have fun boys." He smirked evilly as he walked out the door and Jeff braced himself as he felt six pairs of hands grabbing at him all at once.


	39. The Final Countdown

"Fuck!" Matt cursed as he kicked a small rock down the sidewalk. He, Glenn and Tom had been searching for Jeff for hours and were having no luck in finding him. They had called the others to see if they had had any luck but they hadn't either. He was really really starting to get worried. He knew Jeff had a history of running off before but this time felt different. In his heart he knew that this time was different. With everything that was going on, something bad had to have happened. It was driving him crazy just thinking about it. He had to find him. Now. He had to find him now he couldn't take this not knowing anymore. "This is pointless."

"I hate to agree with you right now but I think so too," Glenn said with a sigh. He was checking his phone yet again, seeing if the others or Jeff himself had sent him a text. "We gotta assume he's been taken."

Tom shook his head and ran a hand over his face. "Remember when we didn't have to assume that?"

"Faintly," Glenn replied dryly.

"Remember when we had normal lives?"

"Not in the slightest."

Matt ignored the banter and looked up and down the street. Besides from them there was only a single car coming down towards them...a cop car. Fuck. That was the last thing they needed. They were out after curfew this was gonna be trouble they didn't need. "Come on," he said, turning on his heel and trying to push Glenn and Tom towards the nearest set of bushes so they could hide behind them. "Come on come on come on-"

"Wha-shit!" Tom saw the cop car coming and dived behind the bushes. Matt got there right next to him but Glenn wasn't so lucky. He tripped over his own two feet and barely managed to get his hands out so that he wouldn't hit his face when he fell to the ground.

"Fuuuuuuck..."

"When the FUCK did you get so clumsy?" Matt hissed in disbelief. He saw the cop car pulling right up to where Glenn was getting up and groaned under his breath. They were caught.

"I saw you guys to begin with. You didn't have to try to ninja your way away."

Matt and Tom exchanged looks before standing up and facing John Cena of all people, who was leaning out his window to look at them. "What are you doing out here?" Matt asked. Dumb question (as evidenced by the looks Tom and Glenn gave him) but it was all he could come up with at the moment.

"My job," John replied. "What are YOU guys doing out here?"

Matt, Glen and Tom exchanged looks. Despite their usual distrust of authority, Matt found himself opening his mouth to give an honest answer. Honestly, at this point, they were fucked no matter which way they turned so he just wanted more people on their side in the looking of Jeff. He didn't care who found out they were the Saints at this point. He wanted his brother back alive and in one piece. "Jeff's missing." He winced as Tom kicked his leg but that didn't stop him in the slightest. "We're trying to find him."

The color drained from John's face at those words. "He's missing?"

Glenn nodded along with Matt. Too late to hide it now.

"How long now?"

"Few hours..."

"And you didn't CALL anyone?" John's voice spiked in disbelief.

"We thought we'd find him..." Tom said in their defense.

John just shook his head. "Just get in. I'll help."

Glenn and Tom hesitated but Matt just went right into the passenger's seat. He really really didn't care at this point. If it was gonna help him get Jeff back then he was more than for it. If the others didn't like it, they could just kiss his ass.

...

"Is Jeff dead?" Connor asked. He and Cooper were still at the house waiting for the possibility of Jeff's return, which had shrunk down to nothing at this point. Connor was eating popcorn and watching cartoons while Cooper placed around the house, trying to occupy his time by texting Randy. Dealing with Connor was also time consuming though it was never really fun to do. A pain in the ass was more like it.

"No." He had no idea if that was true or not but he didn't know what else to tell Connor until he actually knew otherwise.

"How do you know?" Of course Connor had to ask that. Couldn't just let it go and not be difficult.

"Because I do."

"That's dumb. You don't know that."

"I'm not fighting with you," Cooper said irritably. "Just eat your popcorn."

"But-"

"Just EAT damn it!" Cooper shook his head and headed out of the room and into the kitchen. He needed to just get away from Connor for a bit. He loved his brother to death but he was just too much sometimes.

"Coopy!"

Ugh. Speak of the devil. "NO Connor!"

"But Coopy!"

"God DAMN it!" Cooper stormed back into the living room, fully intending to just wallop Connor upside the head when he saw that the TV had been hijacked once again. Connor's cartoons had disappeared and had been replaced by the image of the Nexus standing in front of the ruins of city hall. Wade Barrett was in the lead and in the middle of all of them, being held by the biggest dudes of the group, was a battered and bruised Jeff. "Oh my god..."

"Jeff!" Connor dropped his popcorn, letting it just spill on the floor. Snoopy bounded over to eat it though neither one of them hardly noticed.

"For years, this city has been ruled not by the law, but by vigilantes." Wade's voice was booming, his eyes glinting as he stared into the camera. "Vigilantes that have cleaned up your streets and while you claim you want to bring them to justice, this is all but a fallacy. Every single one of you have been content to let them clean up your streets so that you can all sleep nice and sound in your beds." He smirked. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have managed to do what your law enforcement has always failed to do." He turned back and took Jeff into his own grasp, holding him by the throat and putting a gun to his head. Not that it was really needed. Jeff had been beaten so badly that he could barely stand on his own two feet. "This lad here is Jeff Hardy. He wasn't very eager to tell us that but as you can see-" he gripped Jeff's face roughly with one hand and showed off the damage they had done there "we had useful methods of persuation."

"Bastards," Cooper muttered under his breath.

"He hasn't given up the rest of the Saint members though," Wade went on, his face hardening. "But that's alright...because I have a new plan." His grip went back to Jeff's throat and Jeff whimpered loudly. "If the rest of the Saints aren't here within the next half hour, we have our first ever live dismemberment-"

"Come on." Cooper grabbed Connor by the back of the neck while dialing Mark with his other hand.

"Where are we going? Are we gonna save Jeff?"

"No, we're going to the circus. Of COURSE we're gonna save Jeff you idiot!"

"Mean! I'm telling Daddy!"

"Go ahead-if we don't all die that is."


End file.
